Bengaluru: Tamil actor Ilayathalapathy Vijay’s fans reportedly clashed with pro-Kannada activists outside a film theatre in Bengaluru’s RT Nagar on Wednesday.
According to the RT Nagar police, the fight started after the actor’s fans allegedly attacked a local for staring at Vijay’s cutouts erected outside the Sri Radhakrishna Theatre, where his film Mersal was being screened.
“One man was looking at Vijay’s cutout, when a few of his fans began abusing the local and questioned him as to why he was staring at the cutout. A verbal argument ensued between the youth and Vijay’s fans. They assaulted him, put him on the ground and kicked him,” Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) member Praveen Shetty said.
The youth then approached Praveen Shetty and claimed that he was assaulted by Vijay’s ‘Tamil speaking fans.’
Praveen Shetty’s faction of the KVR then landed up at Radhakrishna Theatre and began protesting the attack on Kannadigas.
“It was a Tamil film and they are screening it in Karnataka. What was the need to assault the youth just because he was looking at the cutout? We lodged a protest and demanded that the movie screening be stopped immediately. Karnataka Rakshana Vedike workers were present in huge numbers and the protest began at 11 am,” Shetty added.
Soon after the protest began, the Vedike’s members tore the Mersal movie poster and demanded that the screening be stopped and the people watching the movie be made to leave.
