With the Tamil Nadu elections just over a year away, polarising campaigns have begun in earnest here as well. The IT raids on actor Vijay while he was on the sets of his upcoming Master too have to be seen in this light. And in the backdrop of the fact that the BJP and several right wingers use dogwhistles while talking about the actor. They don’t call him Vijay like the rest of TN does. They specifically call him Joseph Vijay. (They claim to do so because actor Vijay’s letterhead says so. But the title cards of his movies, the actor’s social media handles, newspapers, everywhere else… he’s called Vijay or Thalapathy Vijay).
Today, actor Vijay Sethupathi who is co-starring alongside Vijay in Master posted an uncharacteristically angry, (yet very restrained) tweet. He was asking those in-charge of the smear campaign against him “to go and do some work”.
The inflammatory and highly defamatory message, looks like one of those typical conspiracy theories, intended to polarise people against a ‘conversion racket’. It also looks so far-fetched that you’d have to be very gullible (ie very communal) to fall for it.
போயி வேற வேலை இருந்தா பாருங்கடா… pic.twitter.com/6tcwhsFxgT
— VijaySethupathi (@VijaySethuOffl) February 12, 2020
Among other things, the fake message claims Vijay Sethupathi has converted to Christianity, is involved in a racket meant to convert other actors belonging to the cinema industry and that the profits from Bigil are being funnelled towards this.
