Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar to boycott controversial film ‘Empuraan’
Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala BJP State President and former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has announced that he will not be watching the recently released Malayalam film ‘Empuraan’, starring superstar Mohanlal.
Directed by actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Sukumaran, ‘Empuraan’ is the much-anticipated sequel to ‘Lucifer’, a 2019 blockbuster.
However, the film has been mired in controversy, prompting the leader to take a stand.
Taking to social media platform X, Chandrasekhar expressed his disappointment after learning about significant changes made to the movie.
He revealed that the filmmakers had agreed to 17 cuts following public outrage, which led to a re-censorship process.
“I had watched Lucifer and liked it. I was looking forward to watching Empuraan as it was a sequel. But now I’ve come to know that the makers themselves have implemented 17 edits and that the movie is undergoing re-censorship,” he wrote.
Chandrasekhar criticised the alleged distortion of facts in the film, saying, “A movie should be watched as a movie. It can’t be seen as history. Any film that tries to build a story by distorting the truth is doomed to fail.”
“So, will I watch this sequel to Lucifer? No. Am I disappointed by this type of moviemaking? Yes,” he said.
The controversy erupted after the film’s release on Friday, with viewers raising objections to certain scenes that reportedly depicted the 2002 Gujarat violence.
Senior RSS national leaders, J. Nandkumar and A. Jayakumar, voiced their disapproval on social media.
Various RSS-affiliated organisations in Kerala also criticised the film, intensifying the backlash.
According to sources close to the production, the film is now undergoing re-censorship with 17 cuts.
The name of the antagonist, Baba Bajrangi, will be changed. The film also reportedly portrays central investigative agencies like the NIA, IB, and ED in a negative light. These scenes are also expected to be removed as part of the re-censorship process.
Meanwhile, RSS sympathisers have turned their ire toward the regional censor board members, accusing them of negligence.