Pro-Kannada activists protest 'Kabali', taken into preventive custody

About 15 pro-Kannada activists led by Vatal Nagaraj were taken into preventive custody by the Vyalikaval Police on the first day of Tamil Superstar Rajnikanth's Kabali's release, as their protest threatened to disturb the law and order situation near Nataraj theatre in Seshadripuram area here.
The police said that the activists will be released and were only taken to the station to bring the situation under control.The protestors raising slogans and blocking the road, the police said, led to some words being exchanged with the fans who had bought the tickets for the movie.
Speaking to TOI from the Vyalikaval police station, Vatal Nagaraj said: 'Rajnikanth, although from here, took Tamil Nadu's side in the Cauvery issue in the early 1990s. How can we celebrate a movie by such a person? Even otherwise, there seems to be a lot of encouragement for non-Kannada movies in Bengaluru and as someone fighting for Kannada for more than three decades, I will continue to condemn such acts.'
The protestors not only burnt an effigy, which they called 'other language demon' but also burnt a few movie reels of old Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu movies. 'It is not fair that other language movies get more encouragement. We had to do what we had to,' Nagaraj said, adding that even Tamilians outside the theatre screamed at the protesters. '...It wasn't just us,' he said.
On why he had not protested against a few other movies of less popular Tamil actors that were released in the recent past, he said: 'Are you asking me if I am really protesting or trying to achieve something else. You should not.'