Even as the Kabali teaser crossed 10 million views on YouTube creating a record, DMK supporters tweaked the teaser to their advantage with political messages hitting out at AIADMK by ‘dubsmashing’ it.
The teaser video is being used in a DMK campaign, and has gone viral. There’s a shot at the beginning where the supposed antagonist of the film, Kishore, asks, ‘Yaarda intha Kabali, Vara sollra avane!’ (Who is this Kabali? Ask him to come to me!). In the Dubsmash video, the dialogue was changed to ‘Who is this DMK? Ask him to fight it out in the forthcoming elections!’
Right after the opening, are scenes with Rajini mouthing punch lines in his inimitable style. He says “Do you think that I’m someone who plays a sidekick to villain MN Nambiar (late legendary villain in MGR films)? Don’t mess with me, I’m Kabali da.” — the hack is that Rajinikanth calls himself ‘DMK’ instead of ‘Kabali’, and says he always works for the welfare of the public. He is also shown recommending DMK in preference to the incompetent AIADMK.
Pictures of Rajinikanth wishing DMK chief Karunanidhi from an earlier meeting have also been inserted to make it look like Superstar is supporting the latter in the upcoming elections.
Although the official DMK campaign team claimed innocence, it didn’t sit well with Superstar fans or the makers of Kabali. Speaking to this newspaper, a peeved Thanu, the producer of the movie, said, “We have no political intentions. How can anyone use our teaser for their political gain? It is totally wrong. I have complained to YouTube to pull the video down instantly.”
