Mollywood director Aashiq Abu and actor Prithviraj Sukumaran have withdrawn from the controversial movie project on the life of Variyamkunnath Kunhahammed Haji, titled ‘Vaariyamkunnan’.
According to reports, the director and actor have decided to part with the project over difference of opinion with the producers of the movie Zikander and Moideen.
Variyamkunnath Kunhahammed Haji is credited for leading the Malabar Rebellion of 1921. Ever since the project was announced, many had claimed that Haji was not a freedom fighter, but was a Muslim zealot, and accused the makers of the movie of attempting to glorify him.
Right wing outfits in Kerala had said Malabar Rebellion was an anti-Hindu movement, even as state Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan hailed Haji to be a freedom fighter.
Prithviraj was expected to play the lead roel of Haji.
Besides, one of the scriptwriters of the movie, Rameez, was slammed for his old social media posts that were sectarian and misogynistic .
Earlier, while announcing the project, Prithviraj had said of Haji, "He stood up against an empire that ruled a quarter of the world. Etched out his own country with an army that waged a never before war against the British. Though history was burned and buried, the legend lived on! The legend of a leader, a soldier, a patriot."
