On Monday, the Tamil Nadu government had requested the Information & Broadcasting Ministry to either stop or ban the release of The Family Man Season 2 for allegedly depicting the Eelam Tamils in a negative light. In a letter to I&B minister Prakash Javadekar, Tamil Nadu IT Minister T Mano Thangaraj said the trailer presented Tamilians in a “highly objectionable manner” and their was an attempt to discredit the struggle of the Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Raj and DK said in the statement, “Some assumptions and impressions have been made based on just a couple of shots in the trailer. Many of our lead cast members, as well as key members of the creative & writing team, are Tamilians. We are very cognizant of the sentiments of the Tamil people and Tamil culture and have nothing but the utmost love and respect towards our Tamil people.”
Requesting everyone to watch the show first, they added, “We have put in years of hard work into this show, and we have taken great pains to bring to our audiences a sensitive, balanced, and riveting story – much like we did in Season 1 of the show. We request everyone to wait and watch the show when it releases. We know you’ll appreciate it once you watch it.”
The TN minister pointed to the portrayal of actor Samantha Akkineni in The Family Man 2 trailer in his letter. “Branding Tamil speaking actress Samantha as a terrorist in the serial is directly an attack on the pride of Tamils living around the world and no one will tolerate this kind of motivated and mischievous campaign,” he said.
“I would like to bring to your notice about the condemnable, inappropriate and malicious contents of The Family Man 2 serial in Hindi, which depicts the Eelam Tamils in a highly objectionable manner. The trailer of the above said serial which was released in the social media network is aimed at discrediting and distorting the historical struggle of Eelam Tamils in Sri Lanka,” read a section of the letter.
Earlier, Rajya Sabha MP Vaiko also wrote a letter to Prakash Javadekar demanding the ban on the show’s broadcast on Amazon Prime Video. The series is scheduled for June 4 release on the OTT platform.
