In a moving letter, a resident doctor living in Puducherry has appealed to actors Joseph Vijay, T.R. Silambarasan and to the Government of Tamil Nadu stating that the pandemic was not yet over and that the move to open theatres to full capacity is suicidal.
“I am tired. We are all tired. Thousands of doctors like me are tired. Health care workers are tired. Police officials are tired. Sanitary workers are tired.”, Mr. Aravinth Srinivas, the JIPMER doctor starts off his letter.
“We have worked so hard at the ground level to make sure the damage done is kept to as low as possible amidst an unprecedented pandemic.” said Aravinth adding that the intention was not to glorify the work they have done.
“We don’t have cameras in front of us. We don’t do stunt sequences. We aren’t heroes. But we deserve some time to breath. We don’t want to fall prey to someone’s selfishness and greed.”, wrote Mr. Srinivas coming down heavy on the actors.
He wrote that the pandemic is not over yet and that there are still people dying of the disease. “A hundred percent theatre occupancy is a suicide attempt.”, the doctor declared in his letter.
He also highlighted that none of the ‘policy makers’ or ‘so-called heroes’ are going to put themselves at risk by watching the movie amidst the crowd.
“This is a blatant barter system, trading lives for money.”, the doctor noted in his letter.
He urged the actors and the Government of Tamil Nadu to not reignite the flames that is slowly burning out but not completely put out.
He signed off saying that he wanted to keep the post scientific and explain why the danger of the pandemic still persists but said “what is the point?”