In an interesting twist to the ongoing Nadigar Sangam battle in Tamil Nadu, The News Minute (TNM) has learned from reliable sources that Sarath Kumar’s camp has taken a back-foot after realizing that they could lose the upcoming elections, and have reached out with a compromise formula to the Nasser and Vishal camp. Further, highly placed sources in Nasser’s camp have told TNM that they have decided not to wave the white flag and go forward with the elections as planned.
The South Indian Film Artists Association, also known as Nadigar Sangam, is now witnessing a clash of the titans with 'Pandavar Ani' comprising of Vishal, Nasser, Ponvanan, Karunas and Karthi taking on the incumbent camp comprising of President Sarath Kumar, Radharavi, Radhika Sarathkumar, Shaam and Mumtaz in the upcoming elections on October 18. You can read a detailed explainer about the entire controversy here.
The first hint of the development in the Sarath camp was from the producers' council press conference held today, in which the procuders requested that there be a compromise and both sides not battle it out.
Addressing a press conference later on Wednesday, Radhika Sarathkumar said that the film industry is like a family and asked the opposite camp ‘Pandavar Ani’ to rethink their decision.
“This is a problem within the industry, so they should have come and directly talked to us instead of making it such a big issue,” she said, adding that if they back out now, they can still reach a consensus.
Questioning the intensions of the ‘Pandavar Ani’, actor Silambarasan who is also the Vice-President candidate for the Sarath Kumar camp said that actor Vishal has personal agenda in these elections. “If there is a problem in our family, why go and talk about it to thousands of other people instead of solving it between ourselves?” he asked.
Putting up a brave face, actor and director Mohan Raman said that if the elections happen, the Sarath Kumar team will surely win it. Reiterating the same, Silambarasan asked, “Who will vote for an inexperienced person? If a person is trying to break the family, let’s come together and fight against them.”
Actor Nasser addressing Nadigar Sangam members at a meeting recently.
But sources in the industry have confirmed to The News Minute that Sarath Kumar’s camp has reached out to Nasser and Vishal through the producers’ council and the directors’ union, stating that if they drop out of elections, then Sarath’s team will drop Radharavi from their team, and the new executive members will have members agreed upon by both sides.
The change of heart seems to be a fall-out of the results of an internal survey conducted by the Sarath camp which showed that they could lose badly. This has jolted Sarath Kumar’s team.
But Nasser’s camp stands strong, with sources saying that they have decided to put their foot down and go ahead with the elections.
“They have not come to us directly for any compromise, they have asked the producers’ council and directors’ union to reach out to us,” said a member of the Nasser team, “It is a democratic event, let members decide.”
The member also states that they had proposed the same options being proposed by Sarath Kumar’s team earlier as well, but at that time Sarath and Radharavi were arrogant and did not accept their demands. The member said that the producers and directors must now advice both sides to have free and fair elections.
Further, Nasser-camp member said that it is on the promise that they will never compromise with the Sarath-camp that they were able to get support from a significant number of artists, including the stage artists. So if they do it now, it will amount to a breach of their trust. “We told them we will not back out, now we cannot go back on our word. They should have thought about it earlier,” the member said.
Seasoned observers believe that the turning point in the tussle was when Jayalalithaa-led AIADMK sent a strictures to its members in the Nadigar Sangam asking them not to take sides openly and not contest for any of the posts. This was largely seen as a directive from the most influential person of Tamil Nadu to let the members decide who should head the Sangam, without any external pressures. This seems to have tipped to scales against Sarath Kumar, say observers.