Saturday 17 March 2012

'Thiruvambadi Thamban' gets a tranquilizer shot

Alappuzha: The Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) has denied permission for using elephants for the shooting of M Padmakumar's film Thiruvambadi Thamban with Jayaram in the lead.

The AWBI has also served show-cause notices to the film's producer and director for illegally parading 54 tuskers for the shooting of the film last December. The board has also asked the director to remove the scene in the film in which Jayaram (Thiruvambadi Thamban Tharakan) and Jagathy Sreekumar (Thiruvamabi Mathan Tharakan) have acted along with tuskers.

On March 1 this year, the AWBI's Performing Animals Sub Committee (PASC) considered six applications from various film producers for getting the board's no-objection certificate (NOC) for using animals for shooting. However, the PASC granted NOC to all other films except Thiruvambadi Thamban.

The film's director Padmakumar and producer Alexander John (Jini Cinema) submitted a letter of apology to the AWBI for using 54 elephants for the shooting of the film without AWBI permission on December 23, 2011 on the premises of the Kattakampal Temple in Thrissur. The board, however refused to entertain the letter and served them a show-cause notice on March 1 under section 26 of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act, 1960.

As per the Performing Animals (Registration) Rules, 2001, shooting with animals should be undertaken only after getting pre-shoot permission from AWBI. Padmakumar said they had sought permission for using two elephants for filming outside Kerala. "However, we did not get permission and they also sought some clarifications from us. We do want to highlight this issue. Though we have been directed to delete some scenes, we will take a decision on that only before we submit the movie to the Censor Board," he said. The show-cause notice followed a complaint lodged by V K Venkitachalam, secretary, Heritage Animal Task Force.

Venkitachalam said the film told the story of a family which indulged in illegal trading of elephants, which also is against rules. "The director of the movie has also used elephants in Nagercoil, Pollachi and Tirunelveli for the shooting without the permission of the board. We have also drawn the board's attention to this issue."

However, S Sureshkumar, the scriptwriter of the film, said the story of the film did not violate any rules. "We have not used 54 elephants for the shooting, and we have shot the real pooram at Kattakampal Temple. We have informed the AWBI this. And they have sought some clarifications from us after we failed to submit some papers. We will soon sort out all problems," he said.

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