Rajinikanth Lauds Mersal For Addressing Contemporary Issues    

Chennai: Tamil superstar Rajinikanth on Sunday lauded the crew of actor Vijay's starrer Mersal, saying the film has addressed an important issue.

However in a terse Twitter message, he did not explicitly refer to any specific issue, although the film has courted controversy over Goods and Services Tax, with BJP claiming that there have been incorrect references to the central taxation. Diwali release Mersal has kicked up a row with the BJP taking exception to references on GST in the movie.

BJP leaders, including Raja, a national secretary in the party, state president Tamilisai Soundarajan and Union minister Pon Radhakrishnan, have been demanding that the "incorrect" references be deleted from the big-budget flick. However, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, his senior colleague P Chidambaram, DMK working president M K Stalin, veteran star Kamal Haasan and a host of Tamil cinema industry representatives had supported the film crew on the issue.

The BJP had on October 20 objected to what it termed as "untruths" regarding the GST in just-released Mersal, and wanted dialogues on the central taxation to be deleted. Actor Vishal had earlier accused Raja of advocating piracy by watching the movie online, a charge rejected by latter.

PTI