A day after members of a certain religious group destroyed the film set of upcoming Malayalam movie Minnal Murali, actor Tovino Thomas, director Basil Joseph and producer Sophia Paul among others took to social media to condemn the incident. Taking to his social handles, Tovino captioned his post by saying, "It has caused us a lot of distress, and even more of anxiety. We have decided to go ahead with the legal proceedings."
In a lengthy note, he wrote, “Minnal Murali’s first schedule at Wayanad had been in progress when the set for the second schedule began construction at Kalady. It was carried out by art director Manu Jagad and team, under special instructions by stunt choreographer Vlad Rimburg. For this, we had the proper permissions from the concerned authorities. And as we were about to start shooting in this set – which was built on a considerable cost, the whole country went into lockdown, following which our shoot was paused, just like all others . It is during this prevailing uncertainty that this contractual set was destroyed by a group of racialists yesterday. The reasons they cite for this unceremonious act are not understood to our senses till now. We’ve heard of movie sets being vandalised by religious fanatics in Northern parts of India. Now, it’s happening to us right here.”
According to reports, members of Antharashtra Hindu Parishad (AHP) and Bajrang Dal on Sunday demolished the set of a church and claimed responsibility for the vandalism in a Facebook post. AHP’s General Secretary Hari Palode shared pictures of people destroying the film set along with a post that read, “We don’t have the habit of pleading. We decided to demolish it. Our self-respect must be protected at all cost.”
As per reports, the Perumbavoor Police in Kerala have registered an FIR on Monday and has begun the investigation. In a press briefing held earlier on Monday, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan promised tough action against the outfit responsible for the antisocial act.