Forest officials arrest crewmembers – Shankar, Rajini shocked

Trouble gives chase Sivaji in the form of mismanagement of the shoots. Earlier shoots were disrupted in the locality of Pachayappa’s College for lack of proper approval from the local police. Did you think the production crew has learnt a lesson or two in obtaining approvals for the ensuing shoots? It seems not. The shoots were suspended once again yesterday when forest officials came in demand of approval.

Sivaji crew is camped in the outskirts of Chennai and Kanchipuram and the shoots are being carried out in Thiruporur and Alandur. While scenes of Rajini’s encounter with the villains were being canned in the sets erected by the roadside, forest officials came demanding the approval since the area belonged to the forest department. However, the production unit presented the approval obtained in this regard from the Highways Department claiming that the area belonged to Highways Department.

The officials departed the place, only to return with the Kanchipuram District Forest Officer Leema Doshi later to arrest Sakthi and Venkat of the production unit for conducting shoots without prior approval and felling trees in the forest area.

Shankar, Rajini, and K.V. Anand were startled after this incident and the shoots were to be cancelled following this. Though the shoots were not wrapped up, it is unsure as to when the shoots will resume since it was earlier planned to conduct the shoots for two days.

Eventually Sakthi and Venkat were released later after the requisite fine of Rs. 50,000 was paid. But was the lesson learnt atleast after this? Cancellation of Rajini’s shoots is definitely a big deal and a setback for the progress of the movie. Will the production management pay heed to all the approvals before they grant a go ahead for conducting the shoots? Two lessons in a row, another one may prove pricey.

In a lighter vein…

Alandur – where the shoots were conducted – sprung to bustling life with the visit of the superstar and bigwigs of the industry.

The small scale industries functioning in the industrial area of Alandur declared a local holiday to facilitate the fans to witness the shoots of Sivaji.

Whilst on the subject, recently when the shoots were held in and around Pune – where Rajini danced with the Tamil folk artistes – the superstar demonstrated his fondness for the folk artistes by conferring a cash price of Rs. 5,000 upon all the 63 of them. Superstar to superhuman?