1. Production accident claims lives - In a tragic accident, a crane carrying heavy lights gave way on the sets of Kamal Haasan's Indian 2 in February led to the death of three crew members.
Kaamal reportedly later approached the Madras High Court a month later, alleging harassment by the police who were to be investigating the accident.
2. Photo mixup - The Arun Vijay-starrer Mafia: Chapter 1, which was released in February, was slammed for using photos of victims murdered by Toronto serial killer, Bruce McArthur.
The people in the photos were depicted as being connected to a drug kingpin in the movie. Following this, the film's production company, Lyca Productions, apologised in a written statement.
Lyca claimed that the pictures were 'downloaded randomly from the net' and used only for 'creative narration'. Nevertheless, Amazon Prime Video had by then taken down the film from Canada.
3. Clash of egos - The production of Mysskin's Thupparivaalan 2 hit a roadblock after the filmmaker had a major fall out with the lead, Vishal because of a budget overshoot.
Vishal, also the producer of the film, decided to take up the directorial responsibilities and finish the project. The actor and the director went on to make open allegations against each other.
The first look of the film, subsequently, had no mention of Mysskin’s name, despite the director completing over a month of shooting.
It was later reported that Vishal was considering bringing Mysskin back as the director, but there have been no official announcements regarding the issue.
4. Trial by social media - Twitter was rife with outrage in October following the announcement of the Muthiah Muralitharan biopic, 800, starring Vijay Sethupathi as the famous cricketer.
With clips from an interview of Muralitharan doing the rounds, detractors, who alleged that the cricketer’s stand isn’t sympathetic to Eelam Tamils, urged Sethupathi to step away from the project.
Subsequently, Sethupathi confirmed the news that he was stepping away from the biopic. He also shared a statement of Murali in which the Lankan bowler sympathised with the actor for the online hate.
5. Misplaced outrage - Jyotika found herself at the centre of a heated social media debate after her statement at an award show went viral for all the wrong reasons.
She had said that those who donate to temples should also donate to hospitals and schools. The comments sparked a wave of online hate, as Hindu sections took it as an attack on the religion.
Suriya went on to back his wife’s comments through a statement, where he strongly iterated that humanity is above all religion, and that her wife's intention had been twisted to give a communal colour
6. Payment woes - Producer Ravindran of Trident Arts approached the High court in Sept stating that Vishal owed him Rs 8 crore to settle the losses of their latest film, Action.
Ravindran also wanted to stay the release of Vishal's next outing, Chakra, which was supposed to premiere on September 30 on a leading OTT platform
The court, while refusing to extend the stay on Chakra's release, ordered Vishal to post a guarantee of Rs 8.29 crore to cover the losses incurred in Action.
9. Court takes offence - Suriya's comment on NEET that it's a 'Manuneethi' exam that deprives underprivileged children of an opportunity to become doctors, didn't go well down with the court.
A High Court judge wrote to the Chief Justice, to initiate contempt proceedings against the actor, contending that Suriya's statement undermined the integrity of the judges and the judicial system.
However, several other retired High Court judges came in defence of Suriya with a letter addressed to the Chief Justice, asking him to put the issue to rest by not initiating any contempt proceedings.
10. Bigg Boss brouhaha -Bigg Boss Tamil 3 fame Tharshan and his then-fiancée, actor Sanam Shetty, who is a contestant in the current season of Bigg Boss, broke up earlier this year. Both of them took
Sanam, in addition, filed a police complaint against Tharshan for cheating, fraud, harassment, threatening, and breach of trust. Tharshan, who is from Sri Lanka, hurriedly convened a press conference.
The court ordered the Adyar All Women Police Station to intervene and take immediate action
11. Incendiary remark - Rajinikanth, at an event to celebrate Tamil magazine Thuglak’s 50th-anniversary, made a statement about Periyar, which went viral
Rajini told the gathering that Periyar had taken out a rally against superstition in Salem in 1971, with “undressed images of Lord Ram and Sita with garlands of sandals,' & no news outlet reported it.
Effigies of Rajinikanth were burnt and protesters laid siege to his Poes Garden residence.
However, the star refused to apologise or express regret for his remarks, saying that the incident involving Periyar was not a “figment of his imagination”, and produced copies of published articles.
12. Dad issues - In Nov, director SA Chandrasekar turned a lot of heads with his request to the Election Commission to convert the fan club of his son, Vijay, into a political party.
Vijay subsequently issued a statement, categorically denying any link to the party that his father had registered. He also requested his fans not to join that political party or work for it
The actor also threatened appropriate legal action if his name, photo, or the name of Vijay Makkal Iyakkam were to be used. Subsequently, SA Chandrasekar withdrew his request from the ElC.
13. Premature censorship - Actor Karunas, the leader of the political party, Mukkulathor Pulipadai, demanded a ban on Dhanush’s next film Karnan, which is being directed by Mari Selvaraj.
According to Karunas, the film, which was rumoured to be based on the 1995 Kodiyankulam caste riots, could trigger violence and unnecessary trouble in the now-peaceful region.
The director, Mari Selvaraj, subsequently confirmed in an interview that his film was not about the Kodiyankulam riots.
In an unrelated controversy, fans of late Sivaji Ganesan requested the producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu to change the film's title because Sivaji's 1964 mythological film had the same name.
14. Row over a reptile -A video of Simbu handling a cobra during the shoot of his upcoming flick Eeswaran went on to trigger a controversy as it was against the law to use wild animals in films.
Officials then sent a notice to the crew seeking an explanation.
In response, the director of the film, Suseenthiran, met forest officials and reportedly proved that the crew only used a rubber snake and CGI effects, after which the film was given a clean chit.
15. Lost in translation - lFollowing the OTT debut of Dulquer Salmaan's Varane Avashyamund (Mal), some Tamil viewers took offence to a particular scene, where Suresh Gopi calls his dog 'Prabhakara'
The protestors said that they were 'gravely offended' by the 'deliberate slander' on their Tamil leader, Velupillai Prabhakaran, and demanded an apology from Dulquer and director Anoop Sathyan.
Following this, Dulquer apologised and said that the said scene was actually a reference to an iconic dialogue from Pattanapravesham, a popular Malayalam film made by Anoop's father, Sathyan Anthikad.
16. The OTT backlash -As theatres remain closed because of the lockdown, Ponmagal Vandhal, starring Jyotika, and produced by Suriya, got a direct OTT release on Amazon Prime Video.
Theatre owners, already sore from the losses inflicted by the lockdown, didn't take kindly to this decision. They condemned the production house's 'hasty' decision.
A statement from the exhibitors said that films made for theatrical release, as a policy, must never opt for digital releases.
They also threatened to never allow a theatre release of any film involving Suriya, and his production house, 2D Entertainment.
17. The never-ending dispute - Ever since the theatres were allowed to be reopened and function with 50 % occupancy, the producers and QUBE went at loggerheads with each other over release terms.
The Tamil Film Active Producers Association (TFAPA), headed by Bharathiraja, said that producers won't be releasing new films unless the Virtual Print Fee (VPF) collected by Qube is waived.
Qube went on to announce 100 %t waiver of VPF for November to 'help kickstart cinema operations.' The producers, however, felt that the waiver for a single month was just a temporary gimmick.
With producers and DSPs still divided over this issue, it is to be seen whether the new year changes the scene decisively.
The anticlimax -In the first week of December, Rajinikanth announced that he was taking concrete steps for his political entry. He was supposed to announce the date of his party's launch on Dec 31.
Three days before the New Year, Rajinikanth did make an announcement, but it was not what his fans expected.
In a three-page statement shared on his social media accounts, Rajinikanth said that he was not joining active politics, and cited his ill-health and post-transplant status as the reason.
Rajini's decision came in the aftermath of the actor being admitted to a Hyderabad hospital, while shooting for his next film, Annaatthe. He was diagnosed with severe blood pressure fluctuations.
