Few days back, there was a mass movement from the film industry, as 49 celebrities joined hands and wrote letters addressing the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stating that there are increasing mob lynching and anti social activities, and that the chant Jai Shriram is misused for violent purposes and demanded the PM's action on this.

This list of 49 celebrities also included top director Maniratnam as per reports, and following these letters, 62 other celebrities including actress Kangana ranaut and lyricist Prasoon Joshi had written letters to the 49 celebrities calling them as politically motivated and questioning their silence during previous terror attacks and other issues.

In a strange development, there was a news making rounds that Maniratnam was not one among the 49 who wrote letters to the PM, and that his sign may have been forged. However, actor and director Maniratnam's wife Suhasini had responded to a tweet claiming that the sign was forged as "pls do not talk or tweet on behalf of Maniratnam. pls stay away from making false clarifications". This seems to be an indication that indeed Maniratnam wrote the letter to PM.