Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan express grief over medical aspirant Anitha's suicide

Medical aspirant, Anitha S, committed suicide on Friday, 1 September, in her house in Ariyalur district of Tamil Nadu. The 17 year-old decided to end her life after her petition against the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) was dismissed by the Supreme Court.

The daughter of a labourer, Anitha had scored 1,176 marks out of 1,200 in the Plus Two public examinations, but could not secure a seat at a medical college as her NEET score was a meagre 86 out of 720.

The news of her death has sent shock waves not only across the state but also across the Tamil film industry.

Rajinikanth, in a tweet, expressed his condolences to the family of the girl.

"What has happened to Anitha is extremely unfortunate. My heart goes out to all the pain and agony she would have undergone before taking this drastic step. My condolences to her family,” he tweeted.

Kamal Haasan, who called on Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan at his residence, spoke to reporters after the meeting with the communist leader.

When asked about the death of the student, Haasan expressed his grief and anger. Talking in Tamil, he said, "Can there be another tragedy greater than this?," the actor asked.

He also asked the media and the public to not make this a caste and party issue.

"What I say is that we should cut across caste, party, or for that matter, even across state borders and fight for this. We should fight for justice. We have buried a girl who was living with dreams. People who said, 'Behold, there is good news coming!' have all disappeared. So has that girl. All the parties must rise. Comrade Thirumavalavan is there. People like him must rise in anger over this injustice."

Calling for a united action, the actor stated that Anita was like one of his own daughters. "People rise over parties to fight for this. This is about my children. It is about his children. It is about our family. Everybody must come. Anitha is like a daughter to me too. Her marks tell me that we have lost a good doctor," Haasan said.

When he was asked the same question in English, Haasan said, " This is a tragedy that should not have happened. Any sensible politician, any sensible citizen should walk-- cutting across lines based on caste, community, parties-- and get together and shout for justice."

When asked what action the governments at the centre and the state must take, Haasan replied, "The governments at the centre and the state and the courts, all of these are things that we set up. We must argue our case well there. All those who must be arguing there are busy bargaining. Then, how will people live?  If you (politicians) can learn lessons only by such suicides continuing, then, don't learn. We ourselves will learn the lesson. Or better still, we will teach you a lesson."

Several other actors and actresses expressed their condolences to the bereaved family of the girl.

Actor and music director G V Prakash called on the family of Anitha to express his condolences. Several celebrities took to social media to register their anger and grief at the unfortunate death of the bright student.