Days ahead of its worldwide release, the highly anticipated period drama thriller Kaantha , helmed by Selvamani Selvaraj and starring Dulquer Salmaan in the lead role, has found itself caught in the midst of controversy after the grandson of veteran Tamil actor MK Thyagaraja Bhagavathar approached a court in Chennai against the film. Claiming that it has portrayed Bhagavathar in a defamatory manner, his kin has demanded a stay on the release of Kaantha. The court has issued notices to the movie’s producers, including Dulquer, seeking an explanation on the matter.

Widely regarded as the “first superstar of Tamil cinema,” Bhagavathar once set a nearly unbreakable record when his film Haridas (1944) ran for a whopping 114 weeks (about 784 days) in a theatre. Haridas ranked as the

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