The director of Dude, Keerthiswaran, has unabashedly proclaimed his ideological loyalty to E.V. Ramasamy Naicker (hailed as “Periyar” by his followers) while defending a film that tramples upon the sanctity of marriage, romanticises extra-marital affairs, and parades moral decay as “progressive values.”
The film’s plot revolves around Agan, a man who willingly gives up his wife to another man and later pretends to be the father of her child. The story — which would anywhere else be called a moral collapse — is being celebrated by a section of gen-z Dravidianists and leftists.
Speaking to the media over its alleged commercial success, “This film is creating debates. What I feel is this is Tamil Nadu. In this state, many ‘elders’ (periyavunga) have lived. One ‘periyavar’ (referring to anti-Hindu bigot EV Ramasamy Naicker) has also lived. They’ve said so many things. We’re just followers of them and talking about it. In Tamil Nadu, these statements are not new. Many have told this before. We as next-gen are carrying it forward and will continue to talk about it. But it will be conveyed entertainingly within cinema that is accepted by audience in large scale, that’s my wish.”
Keerthiswaran went on to say that he will “continue to make such films”.
“Public has accepted #Dude, 95Crs is just a sample. This is Tamilnadu & ‘Periyavar’ oruthar irundhurukaru. They have told lot of similar statements, so it’s not new in TN. I will continue telling such messages in further films too”
– Dir #Keerthiswaran pic.twitter.com/8l8F4stWBT— AmuthaBharathi (@CinemaWithAB) October 22, 2025
The director of Dude, Keerthiswaran, has proudly outed himself as a textbook Dravidian propagandist, hailing E.V. Ramasamy Naicker, the self-styled “champion of women’s rights” who advocated for women to discard their uteruses to avoid the “slavery” of motherhood and promoted “pleasure without responsibility” as a virtue.
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