Suriya's latest film Jai Bhim got released on Amazon Prime Video and became a huge success. The film which talks about the brutality faced by oppressed people surpassed 'The Shawashank Redemption' to the highest-rated film on IMDb. It also courted controversy as it fumed problems with the Vanniyar community and the political party PMK.

Now, Jai Bhim's director Gnanavel has broken the silence and put out a statement expressing his condolences for the calendar issue in the film. A rough translation of his statement from Tamil is as follows:

"It has been proved once again that Tamil land will always welcome good efforts. My thanks to everyone who gave the biggest congratulations and welcome to the film ‘Jai Bhim’.

I wanted the film to be based on real events and to reflect the plight of the tribal people who are being victimized by false lawsuits. In the 1990s there were various abuses of power such as the death of tribals like Rajakannu and Virpalingam, the tragedy of oppressed women like Chidambaram Padmini and Anthiyur Vijaya. Social injustice for the people to this day and continues to do so.

The communist movement and various human rights organizations continue to fight for justice against the injustices perpetrated against the common people. We have filmed in the hope that the security of the common people can be ensured if the police and the judiciary work together in the case of Judge Chandru when he was a lawyer.

The Hon'ble Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu praised the film 'Jai Bhim' and served the purpose of the film by taking concrete steps to fulfil the long-standing demands of the tribal people. My heartfelt thanks to our Chief Minister for that.

The film 'Jai Bhim' received a warm welcome from all sections of people. Likewise, some of the negative comments that arose for this film were somewhat unexpected to me. Little did I know that a calendar picture hung in the background would be understood as referring to a community. The purpose of the calendar is to reflect the period of 1995, and it is not the intention of any of us to show it as a symbol of a particular community.

That calendar, which comes in only a few seconds, did not go unnoticed by any of us during the filming and during the post-production work. Even before the film was released on Amazon Prime. The movie was watched by various quarters on the big screen. Even if it had come to attention then, we would have changed it before the film came out.

When the film came out on Amazon on the night of November 1st and the calendar found out about the film through social websites, all efforts were made to change it immediately on the morning of November 2nd. Before anyone could ask, I hoped everyone would understand that we had no personal motive after that calendar picture was changed. As a director, I am solely responsible for the matter. It is unfortunate that Surya is telling them to take responsibility.

As a producer and actor in this film, Mr Surya said their only aim was to bring the misery of the tribal people to everyone. I would like to record my regret for the inconvenience caused to him as a director.

I firmly believe that film is the art form of reconciliation between all communities. I would like to reiterate that there is no intention of insulting any individual or any particular community in the making of this film. For this, I express my heartfelt condolences to those who were depressed and hurt.

My heartfelt thanks to the film industry, politics, movements, social activists, friends of the press, and all the unknown friends who have supported us in this difficult situation."

அனைவருக்கும் வணக்கம்... pic.twitter.com/HfrGkSGwOh

— Gnanavel (@tjgnan) November 21, 2021