Revoke censor certificate to 'Mersal' for 'lowering moral standards': Plea in HC

Chennai: A petition was on Monday filed in the Madras High Court for a direction to revoke the censor certificate issued for Vijay-starrer Tamil movie, 'Mersal'.

The petitioner, advocate A Ashvathaman, alleged that the film was full of "wrong propaganda about India and fake dialogues and scenes which obviously leads to misconception about the new taxation system of India and the Goods and Service Tax Act, 2017 to the viewers."

"No picture shall be certified for public exhibition which will lower the moral standards of those who see it and the prevailing laws shall not be so ridiculed as to create sympathy for violation of such laws," he said.

The petitioner sought a direction from the court to revoke the censor certificate issued to the film besides an interim stay on the public exhibition of the movie.

The movie, released on October 18, has kicked up a row with the BJP's Tamil Nadu unit taking exception to references about GST in the movie.

The BJP had objected to what it termed were "untruths" regarding the GST in the film and wanted dialogues on the central taxation to be deleted.

However, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, senior party leader P Chidambaram, DMK working president M K Stalin, veteran star Kamal Haasan and a host of Tamil cinema industry representatives have come out in support of the film crew on the issue.