Parasakthi released worldwide on January 10 and the political drama has performed strongly, as expected, in Tamil Nadu making around Rs 25 crore in India in three days.
Starring Sivakarthikeyan, Ravi Mohan and Sreeleela, and directed by Sudha Kongara, the movie narrates the story of Chezhian against the backdrop of the anti-Hindi agitations in Tamil Nadu in the 1960s.
The 25th film of Sivakarthikeyan was produced by Dawn Pictures and faced issues with the Censor Board Of Certification (CBFC) before its release last Friday.
Director Sudha Kongara spoke exclusively to NDTV about her film and said, "I'm very happy with the reception and I'm very happy that the film released. So both the things are giving me intense, immense happiness. Because I think it's a democratic voice and it's a democracy. And this voice coming out was very important to me. It could have been stifled, it wasn't. I'm grateful that the film is out there for everybody to see. And what I wanted to say in the film was this happened in the 60s. It should never happen again."
"There was a genocide. Be aware of it. And how to bring this incident to the youth 60 years later and how to make them feel about it was the challenge. Today, school kids come up to me and tell me they weren't aware of this part of history. So what is wrong is anybody imposing anything on anybody. We are in a democracy and we do not impose. The message that I wanted to put forth has gone through. It doesn't matter if it was said in a commercial format or said with a bit of sugar coating. The message is out there. The message has reached the people. I love that," Sudha Kongara added.
Parasakthi faced issues with the CBFC, and the censor certificate was issued only on January 9, a day before its release.
Did she feel that the relationship between the CBFC and filmmakers is becoming tenuous in Tamil Nadu?
"I can't really speak for the future. I can't speak for the past. I really don't have that much of an experience. I have released only three films. Yes, even from the time we did Irudhi Suttru, the CBFC had given me a lot of cuts," Sudha Kongara replied.
"Certain things I agreed with, certain things I did not agree with.Then the same thing happened with Soorarai Pottru. When I did not agree with certain things, then it had to be transacted. In Parasakthi, I really didn't get an opportunity to do that because it was really absolutely in the last moment. I didn't even know if my film was releasing with the kind of censor delays that were happening. When the CBFC asked for certain cuts, it was just given to me saying, do these things. I did do those things, but I have to say very honestly, it has not affected the flow of the film or the creative fabric of the film," the director concluded.
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