Suresh Gopi claims he was unaware of what L2 Empuraan was about when he sought help from Amit Shah to secure permissions

Union Minister and actor Suresh Gopi spoke about the contoversy surrounding Prithviraj Sukumaran and Mohanlal's L2 Empuraan at an event recently.

Union Minister and actor Suresh Gopi recently attended an event where he was honoured by the Manorama News Newsmaker award. At the event, he was asked about the controversy surrounding L2 Empuraan and his name being removed from the thank-you card after 17 cuts were made to the film over its depiction of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Here’s what he said. (Also Read: Prithviraj Sukumaran breaks silence on L2 Empuraan Gujarat riots row: ‘Don't need to invest crores on political stance’)

Suresh Gopi claims he didn’t know what L2 Empuraan was about

Suresh Gopi says he hasn't watched Mohanlal's L2 Empuraan and has no intention of watching it either.

Suresh spoke about L2 Empuraan at the event, and OnManorama translated what he said as, “I assisted the team in securing necessary permissions before the film, including for its censorship. Without these approvals, the movie would’ve been stalled, particularly the permission to shoot at the CRPF Pallippuram camp. I reached out to (Union Minister of Home Affairs) Amit Shah to make this happen.”

The actor-politician also stated that he personally asked producer Gokulam Gopalan to remove his name from the credits after the controversy surfaced. “My name was likely added to the thank-you card because of my involvement. However, after learning about the film’s content, I felt my name should not be associated with it,” said the BJP MP. Suresh also stated that he has not watched the movie and has no intention of doing so in the future.

What happened?

In April this year, MP John Brittas claimed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that ‘political pressure’ was exerted on the film for its depiction of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Suresh responded to his claims and said, “A matter of fact…which is the only truth, which I have to let Indian nationals know. There was no censorship pressure on the producers of Empuraan. It was the decision of the producers, and the lead actor of the film, with the permission of the director of the film, to remove 17 portions from the film.”

L2 Empuraan is a sequel to the 2019 hit film Lucifer. It is the second-highest-grossing Malayalam film of all time, with a worldwide haul of ₹265.5 crore.