Ban in screening of Yugapurushan.

The SC/ST Aikyavedi has demanded that the screening rights of the movie ‘Yugapurushan’ be cancelled as according to the organisation the film portrays social reformer and leader of the SC/ST Ayyankali in a bad light. At a press conference here on Tuesday, the Aikyavedi office-bearers demanded that the screening of the film be stopped immediately and that the producers of the movie apologised for the allegedly demeaning Ayyankali. The Aikyavedi said there were several scenes in the film in which Sree Narayana Guru had been eulogised for bringing about many social reforms, many of which were actually brought about by Ayyankali. It claimed that while both Sree Narayana Guru and Ayyankali were friends and contemporaries, the Guru had been portrayed as the teacher of Ayyankali. They said they had no dispute about the greatness of Sree Narayana Guru but that their objection was to portraying Ayyankali as a henchman of the Guru. The film did not give due credit to Ayyankali as a great social reformer and while extolling the Guru as a ‘Yugapurushan,’ was humiliating Ayyankali, they claimed.