Even though actor Suriya never misses a chance for on-screen activism against caste identities, documents reveal that he officially uses his community name, Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya. This apparent hypocrisy raises questions about the integrity of actors who virtue signal publicly while maintaining practices they denounce in private.

Heroes Practice What They Preach

It is true that there is little or no connection between the reel and the real lives of actors in the film industry. M.N. Nambiar, who played negative roles and came across as a cruel villain on-screen, was a righteous man who upheld the highest standards of morals and ethics in his real life.

But today, some actors consider themselves heroes both on and off-screen, virtue signalling their wokeness by mouthing dialogues in front of a camera or whenever they get hold of a mike,  turn out to be hypocrites of the highest order. What they preach and do directly contradicts who they are and what they do in real life.

Suriya is one such fine actor in this league.

In his recent release “Soorarai Pottru”, a mischievous distortion of the story of Captain G.R. Gopinath, Suriya who is shown as an ‘anti-caste’ and a ‘socialist’ capitalist (God knows what that is!) utters the dialogue “I want to break the cost barrier and the damn caste barrier too!”.

There is nothing wrong with this dialogue per se. However, we need to call out Suriya for uttering this line.

Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya

Actor Suriya Sivakumar is not only an actor but is also a producer.  He runs two companies – one ‘2D Entertainment Private Limited’ and the other ‘Rakkia Cinemas Private Limited and is one of the directors of both the companies. The film “Soorarai Pottru” was produced under his ‘2D Entertainment’.

In both these companies, actor Suriya’s name is recorded in the documents as “Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya” while his brother Karthi Sivakumar who is one of the directors of Rakkia Cinemas does not have his community attached to his name.

So, Rakkia ‘Gounder’ Sivakumar Suriya is a producer of Soorarai Pottru in which actor Suriya flirts with ‘EVR-ism’.

Starting a production company and making movies through that company is a profession and is no crime. Having one’s community name as surname is also not a crime as no legal book prohibits one from doing so. But what is criminal, utterly dishonest and morally wrong is to mint money by claiming to ‘eradicate caste’ on screen while clandestinely having one’s caste name behind the scenes.

For someone who has of late been leaving no opportunity to radiate wokeness espousing ‘social justice’ and standing against ‘Manu NEEThi’, it would do himself good to walk the talk. Else, it is better if one doesn’t do the talk and just goes about his work.

Now it would be easy to brush it off saying ‘Rakkia Gounder’ is his grandfather’s name and not his. He could have simple mentioned ‘Rakkia’ while registering. Surya could have simply registered his name in the records of his company without mentioning the caste name. That way, it would be justified if he takes these politically correct positions against caste in public.

Instead, putting ‘Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya’ behind the screen while shouting ‘I want to break the caste barrier’ on the screen is a leaf taken out of EVR’s playbook.

This is not a writeup against Suriya. He is definitely a good actor with great acting skills that spills on to his real life. It is his choice to continue doing movies through his production house registered with his community name while flaunting his wokeness in audio launches and Agaram Foundation events. But what is important is for people to see through the hypocrisy and the double-standards of these stars who take fashionable positions while being morally bankrupt.