BJP calls for hartal on Mohanlal-starrer Odiyan release day; enraged fans troll party

A dawn-to-dusk shutdown was called by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala to protest against the death of a man, who is claimed to be a Sabarimala devotee.

The 50-year-old Venugopalan Nair set himself on fire at a BJP protest venue on Thursday, December 14, and succumbed to his injuries in a hospital. But in his dying declaration, he made no mention of the Sabarimala temple. However, that hasn’t stopped the saffron politicians to call a hartal to protest his death.

But, what the BJP politicians forgot was on Friday, the much-awaited big-budget Mohanlal-starrer Odiyan was being released. Odiyan was set to have the biggest release for a Malayalam film in Kerala, with it being scheduled to be released in nearly 400 out of the 600 screens in its opening week.

However, several shows had to be cancelled, but fans began thronging cinema halls in the morning itself defying the hartal. As several shows were cancelled, Mohanlal fans turned their ire towards BJP on social media.

The saffron party had put out a post on Facebook about Venugopalan Nair and his sacrifice for the Sabarimala issue and called for a hartal. As soon as the post went up, the trolling began, even by BJP supporters who are Lalettan’s fans. Mohan is fondly called ‘Lalettan’ in Kerala. As of now, it has more than 24,000 comments.

A BJP worker threatened to leave the party if he could not watch Odiyan because of the hartal. “If I am not able to watch Odiyan tomorrow because of the hartal, I will forget the 25 years I have given to the Sangh Parivar and leave it,” read his comment.

Hurling abuses, another user questioned the party about who would refund the money for the Odiyan tickets they had bought as the party had called for a hartal.

Few others challenged BJP workers to stop Odiyan supporters from going to watch the movie in theatres. They said they will teach a lesson to all those who will attempt to stop them. Another Mohanlal fan said if any BJP worker stopped a Mohan fan, the party will become a memory in the state.

A young girl commented, “I hope a coconut will fall on your head. If anything happens to Odiyan release, we will not forgive you.”

Another person said with all these hartals BJP was just losing face in Kerala and they will be shown the door soon. Another BJP supporter announced that she was quitting BJP and going to join CPI(M).

Odiyan will mark the directorial debut of ad filmmaker VA Shreekumar Menon and has Mohanlal, Manju Warrier and Prakash Raj in lead roles. The film has been scripted by National Award winner K Hari Krishnan.