Row erupts over Tamil rebel film

A Sinhala-language movie about Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels has provoked a row between Indian Tamil activists and the film's director.

The activists, who sympathise with the Tigers, were involved in a scuffle with the director, Tushara Peiris, in the south Indian city of Madras (Chennai).

The scuffle broke out at a studio where the film, named Prabhakaran after the Tigers' leader, was being processed.

Mr Peiris has now demanded government help to ensure his film rolls are safe.

He told the BBC he was going on a hunger strike to make the Indian and Sri Lankan governments guarantee that the prints of his film - believed still to be at the studios - are returned undamaged.

According to the Sri Lankan press, Mr Peiris' film focuses on a would-be suicide bomber recruited by the Tamil Tigers.

Rising violence

The Chennai studio processing the film was picketed by activists from the Dravidian Tamil movement, a group of parties that backs the Tigers' cause.

Scuffles broke out when Mr Peiris appeared before the protestors in an attempt to defend his film.

A leader of the protesters, Suba Veerapandian, told the BBC he regretted that the confrontation had turned violent.

But, he said, his group had acted to defend Tamils against an "insulting" film.

Tamils are the main ethnic group in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, of which Chennai is the capital.

Tamil speakers are in a minority in Sri Lanka, mostly concentrated in the island's north and east.

The Tigers took up arms against the Sri Lankan government more than 20 years ago, arguing that the island's ethnic Sinhala majority discriminated against Tamils.

The collapse of a recent ceasefire deal has seen fighting intensify along frontlines in the north of the country, where the rebels control a swathe of territory.

Source: bbc