'Karnan' director explains the film’s 1997 setting

‘It was a means to establish context’

Filmmaker Mari Selvaraj has attempted to put an end to the controversy regarding the period in which his latest film, Karnan, starring actor Dhanush, is set by stating that it was set in 1997 to provide a reference to how people lived during the time. A section of DMK supporters had, on social media, criticised him for mentioning that the story, which is loosely based on the Kodiyankulam incident in 1995 when police launched a brutal assault on a Devendrakula Velalar village near Tirunelveli, is set in 1997 instead. Many of them took issue with the fact that the film tries to blame the DMK for the incident when in fact the AIADMK was in power at the time of the actual incident. DMK youth wing secretary Udhayanidhi Stalin appreciated the film but pointed out this contradiction to the makers of the film. Later on, the makers changed the period to just the “later part of the 90s”.