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A year of controversies for Southern cinema (SOUTH FILM YEARENDER)
Indo-Asian News Service

Chennai, Dec 31 (IANS) Controversies, protests, strikes, court wrangles and rigorous debates over freedom of expression marked the year 2005 for the film industry in South India  

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Tamil cinema has had more than its share of such happenings, subjecting film personalities to political and other pressure and raising issue of freedom of expression. 

It all started with producer-director-actor Thangar Bachchan making allegedly derogatory remarks about actresses at a function to release the audio of his film "Chidambarathil Oru Appasamy". 

The remarks were greeted with protests from the South Indian Artistes' Association and individual actresses including Khushboo. 

More violent protests by cadres of the Pattali Makkal Katchi and the Dalit Panthers greeted Khushboo's reported observations in a magazine interview a couple of months later. 

Actress Suhasini, wife of noted director Mani Ratnam, faced flak too for defending Khushboo. Over 50 defamation cases were filed against Khushboo and Suhasini. 

A public outcry against the crude attacks on the freedom of expression and a Madras High Court intervention saved the two actresses from further embarrassment. 

Political groups, calling themselves "pro-Tamil" also ran campaigns against non-Tamil film titles. Director S. J. Suryah was forced to change the title of his film from "BF" to "Anbe Aaruyire". 

Kamal Haasan, however, refused to call his "Mumbai Express" anything else. The Tamil films were the main targets of a fierce campaign in the early months of 2005 in neighbouring Karnataka. 

The campaign, launched in November 2004 to demand a higher entertainment tax on non-Kannada films, continued into 2005 and culminated in the plea for a moratorium on these films. But the campaign died down soon. 

The release of Rajnikanth's Tamil film "Chandramukhi", inspired by Kannada-hit "Aaaptha Mithra", in Karnataka in April found no serious resistance. 

It was pure cinema politics that paralysed the Malayalam film industry for some time. Producers, distributors and exhibitors came together to stall film stars' participation in the 'Asianet-Jeeva Award' show for which the actors wanted to stay away from shooting in March. 

The producers' association clamped a ban on actors participating in the event. This led to a strike, which hit the industry hard. 

Telugu cinema witnessed incidents involving individual actors, though there were no collective actions or campaigns. 

Balakrishna, son of legendary N. T. Rama Rao, faced charges of involvement in a shootout incident. A court acquitted him in February 2005 after producer Bellamkonda Suresh and another person, allegedly shot in the actor's house, retracted their statements and vouched that the assailant was someone other than Balakrishna. 

Another actor, Navdeep, received unwelcome media attention when he was charged with sexually harassing actress Ankitha. 

She was reported to have attempted suicide in December 2004 by consuming sleeping pills in Mauritius, where director V. N. Aditya was shooting for "Manasu Matavinadu" with Ankitha and Navdeep as the lead pair. 

The public debate on the incident continued into 2005, but the actor was spared the agony of a court case.