Thiruvananthapuram, March 30 ,2025

Kerala BJP State President and former Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has announced that he will not be watching the recently released Malayalam film Empuraan, starring superstar Mohanlal.

Directed by actor-filmmaker Prithviraj Sukumaran, Empuraan is the much-anticipated sequel to Lucifer, a 2019 blockbuster.

However, the film has become mired in controversy, prompting Chandrasekhar to take a stand.

Taking to social media platform X on Sunday (March 30), Chandrasekhar expressed his disappointment after learning about significant changes made to the movie.

He revealed that the filmmakers had agreed to 17 cuts following public outrage, which led to a re-censorship process.

“I had watched Lucifer and liked it. I was looking forward to watching Empuraan as it was a sequel. But now I’ve come to know that the makers themselves have implemented 17 edits and that the movie is undergoing re-censorship,” he wrote.

Chandrasekhar criticised the alleged distortion of facts in the film, saying, “A movie should be watched as a movie. It can’t be seen as history. Any film that tries to build a story by distorting the truth is doomed to fail.”

He concluded by stating that he would not be watching Empuraan due to his disapproval of its approach:
“So, will I watch this sequel to Lucifer? No. Am I disappointed by this type of moviemaking? Yes.”

The controversy erupted after the film’s release on March 28, with viewers raising objections to certain scenes that reportedly depicted the 2002 Gujarat violence.

Senior RSS national leaders, J. Nandkumar and A. Jayakumar voiced their disapproval on social media.

Various RSS-affiliated organisations in Kerala also criticised the film, intensifying the backlash.

According to sources close to the production, the film is now undergoing re-censorship with 17 cuts.
The name of the antagonist, ‘Bhajarangi’—allegedly a reference to Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, an accused in the 2002 Gujarat riots—will either be removed or muted.

The film also reportedly portrays central investigative agencies like the NIA, IB, and ED in a negative light. These scenes are also expected to be removed as part of the re-censorship process.

Meanwhile, RSS sympathisers in several social media posts have turned their ire toward the regional censor board members accusing them of negligence.

Notably, one of the board members under scrutiny is the wife of a prominent Sangh Parivar figure who is currently associated with the Governor of Kerala.