Mullaperiyar dam, Tamil Nadu

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

2011: DAM999

[ From the archives of the Times of India]

DMK protests dam movie’s release

Tamil Nadu theatre owners on Wednesday decided against screening controversial film DAM999, believed to be based on the disputed Mullaperiyar dam between Tamil Nadu and Kerala.

"We have decided not to screen both the English and Tamil versions of the film. We believe it goes against Tamil Nadu’s interests. We have received demands from various organizations to boycott the movie. To respect the feelings of people of Tamil Nadu, we have taken this decision,” Tamil Nadu Film Exhibitors’ Association general secretary R Panneerselvam told TOI.

The movie was set to hit screens in Tamil Nadu and other parts of India. DMK chief M Karunanidhi had demanded that the film’s release be stopped “keeping in mind the law and order implications”. He said Tamils and Malayalis have lived together without any problems in both the states and that the issue should not be allowed to come in the way of this peaceful co-habitation. DAM999 director Sohan Roy said the film is based on the 1975 Banqiao dam disaster in China that killed about 2.5 lakh people. But it assumed political overtones with TN politicians pointing to the “obvious inference” to the Mullaperiyar issue.

The row has been kicked up in the backdrop of a long-standing tussle between Tamil Nadu and Kerala over the strength of the century-old Mullaperiyar dam and a proposal to replace it with a new one.

DMK parliamentary party leader T R Baalu and other MPs, who raised the issue in Parliament on Wednesday, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and briefed him on the protests against the film in Tamil Nadu.

Mahalingam, a distributor with rights to release the film in south India, said, “The protests are unfortunate. I assure, as a Tamilian, that the film is not against Tamil Nadu.”