Even as the family feud within the OBC Vanniyar-dominant Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) has spilled over on the streets, as the father-son duo – founder S Ramadoss and former Union Minister and party president Anbumani – is engaged in a war of attrition for control over the party, ‘Ayya’ a biopic on the former is in the making.
The timing is significant since the party is in the throes of the internecine war as Anbumani has taken it to the streets by launching a mass contact campaign on Friday from Thiruporur in nearby Chengalpattu district despite his father approaching the DGP to ban it and the use of party flags. Announcement of the movie directed by acclaimed film maker Cheran too came earlier in the day with Ramadoss releasing the first look of the posters. Actor Ari Arjuna who is playing lead is excited.
OTT platforms have added another avenue for biopics besides theatres. And Ayya is joining the list of movies on Kamaraj, Periyar and Jayalalithaa as well as Sandalwood smuggler turned brigand Veerappan have got good reception. When there is a caste angle to it, it has a captive audience ensuring success in cinemas. Interestingly, Ramadoss turned 86 on Friday and the flick will depict the struggles and protests led by the veteran and the rise of the PMK as a political force in the Dravidian heartland with around 5 per cent vote share.
The film is being bankrolled by the cash rich Lyca productions headed by Tamil Kumaran, son of PMK’s honorary president GK Mani, a Ramadoss loyalist. In fact, he had resigned as the PMK’s Youth Wing Secretary only recently. Sharing posters of the violent Vanniyar Sangam agitation of the 1987 to press for 20 percent quota for the Vanniyar community within the Most Backward Class (MBC) category, on ‘X’, Kumarn wrote: “His voice roared for the voiceless. Now, his story roars on the big screen.”