As protests grow, The Family Man 2 directors urge people to first watch the show

Ever since the trailer for Season 2 of Amazon Prime Video's web-series The Family Man was released online last week, some politicians from Tamil Nadu have demanded a ban on the show for allegedly showing Tamils in a poor light.

What began as a buzz in a section on Twitter soon received support from actor-politician Seeman of Naam Tamilar Katchi. He issued a statement demanding a ban on the web-series and warned that failure to stop it would “lead to worst reactions”.

Following his lead, other Tamil nationalist politicians got into the act. Vaiko, chief of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK) and a member of the Rajya Sabha, wrote to Union information and broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar seeking a ban on the show.

“It is urged that the ministry should take immediate action to stop the release of The Family Man 2. Otherwise, the people of Tamil Nadu will react very seriously and the government will have to face serious consequences,” he said in the letter, without specifying what the 'serious reaction' could be.

Now the government of Tamil Nadu has written to the Union information and broadcasting ministry to stop the release of The Family Man 2 for supposedly depicting “Eelam Tamils in a highly objectionable manner”.

In his letter to Javadekar, Tamil Nadu's information and publicty minister MP Saminathan said, “Branding Tamil-speaking actress Samantha a terrorist in the serial is an attack on the pride of Tamils living around the world and no one will tolerate this kind of motivated and mischievous campaign.”

Going by the trailer, Samantha, the antagonist in the second season, plays a member of the now defunct Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a separatist group that was fighting for a separate Tamil homeland in Sri Lanka and was designated a terrorist organization.

With the campaign against the web-series continuing, director duo Raj Nidimoru and Krishna DK have released a statement in an attempt to mollify the opponents and end the row.

In the statement, Raj & DK said, “Some assumptions and impressions have been made based on a couple of shots in the trailer. Many of our lead cast members as well as key members of the creative and writing team are Tamilians. We are cognizant of the sentiments of the Tamil people and Tamil culture and have nothing but the utmost love and respect towards our Tamil people.”

Urging people to watch the show before targeting it, they said, “We have put in years of hard work into this show and taken great pains to bring to our audiences a sensitive, balanced and riveting story — much like we did in Season 1. We request everyone to wait and watch the show when it is released. We know you will appreciate it once you watch it.”