'Thank you Neyveli'..this was the message from Actor Vijay to his fans and followers after wrapping up the shooting at the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) for his upcoming movie 'Master'. Thanking his fans is habitual for Actor Vijay but this message is not a typical one from the actor as neither he nor his fans came through such a meet in Neyveli and to mark that, Vijay, for the first time, took himself a selfie with the flood of fans and he posted the message and the selfie in his official Twitter handle on Monday.

His selfie and message imply how his fans had deeply sent solidarity to the actor when he was under the scanner of the Income-tax department for the two straight days and it also ratifies the love he sent back to his fans when they stormed to witness him at the spot amid the heated protest rolled out by the BJP. Although the shooting of the movie is yet to over, the protests from the Tamil Nadu BJP unit certainly raises the question of whether the party gives the pre-release promotion.

Thank you Neyveli pic.twitter.com/cXQC8iPukl

— Vijay (@actorvijay) February 10, 2020

When the actor returned to NLC for the shooting last Friday after the Income Tax searches, about dozens of state BJP party members had staged protests in front of the NLC and voiced against permitting the shooting at the protected mining area. Although the Central government company has granted permission, the agitators claimed that the actor and the team shouldn't be permitted to camp the shooting. Soon the protests hit the headlines, they, on one hand, brought huge criticism across the state for protesting against permission that was granted by their party ruling Central government, on the other hand, they seemingly geared up the promotion for his movie as this could be the first such movie shooting that received huge attention and spotlight.

Despite the presence of the police personnel and the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), they claimed the NLC to be the dangerous place and not meant for such activities. The past and the present events reveal that this was neither the first such incident nor the last as the actor had come through some of the bitter experiences and controversies in the past few years. Unlike any other actors, Vijay's movie has been filled up with politics. In 2017, Mersal movie had hit the screens after passing such controversy where the BJP accused the actor and the movie after taking strong jibe against the Center's policies including GST and Demonetization. 

It was during that time BJP's national secretary H Raja spurred up the heat after he tweeted Vijay's voter ID card and mentioning his full name Joseph Vijay. The BJP apparently constituted the religious attack against the actor. The party upheld that the actor is against the BJP as he is a Christian and the actor hadn't rebutted his identity as he released the statement in his official letterhead with his full name. Similarly, in 2018, his Sarkar movie ran with the aberrant developments as the ruling ADMK party unleashed the attack against the movie for speaking about the culture of election freebie in the state. Some of the party members even went to the extent of tearing up the posters of the actor that, in turn, enhanced the fan base for the actor.

It seemingly has become that the controversy and his movies have been glued up each other that, however, resulting with huge support for the actor and the recent incident holds a testament of how the fan base rebutted and countered the protests staged by the BJP. The day when the BJP instigated its politics, NLC had witnessed the gathering of more people and more fans from the state and amid the tensions, Actor Vijay came out from the sets and greeted the fans every day. In the past, he was outspoken during the audio launches and in the events which he would take as the prospect to greet and thank the fans but for this time, before climbing the stairs of the stage for movie promotion, he climbed on the van and greeted his fans from the movie spot. The incidents had exhumed the quest on whether the protests of BJP had taken Actor Vijay much closer to his fans.

Earlier, he was interrogated by the Income Tax department with the connection to the tax evasion of his last movie Bigil. The IT Sleuths had sieved his residences in Chennai and the properties that belong to the AGS production group and film financier Anbu Chezhiyan and while the actor was under interrogations, Vijay's fans had sent solidarity to him by trending the hashtag of '#WeStandWithVijay'.