📌 Key Points
- Director Lenin Bharathi criticizes Rajinikanth’s gold chain gift to a sanitation worker.
- Bharathi questions Rajinikanth’s ‘so-called generosity’ and lack of advocacy for workers’ rights.
- Rajinikanth gifted the gold chain to Padma, a sanitation worker who returned unclaimed gold ornaments.
- Social media users are divided, with some supporting Bharathi’s critique of Rajinikanth’s actions.
Tamil director Lenin Bharathi has sparked controversy by criticizing Rajinikanth’s act of gifting a gold chain to a sanitation worker. Bharathi questions the superstar’s commitment to workers’ rights, igniting a debate on social media about performative generosity.
Rajinikanth’s Gift to Sanitation Worker
Director Lenin Bharathi took to his social media to slam Rajinikanth after he gifted a gold chain to a Chennai sanitation worker. Here’s what he said.
Lenin Bharathi’s Criticism Explained
For the unversed, Rajinikanth met Padma at his home on Tuesday and gifted her a gold chain. She works as a sanitation worker in T Nagar, where she found an unclaimed pouch containing 45 sovereigns of gold ornaments. She immediately informed her superiors and handed the gold over to the police station, ensuring it reached the rightful owners. Rajinikanth had called her home to laud her for it.
Others, however, seemed to side with Lenin , with a Redditor writing, “Bro Lenin is not asking Rajini to call out the government. He’s just exposing his fakeness as a philanthropist.” Another wrote, “Bro made a photoshoot with the context of showing his generosity to a sanitary worker, where actual sanitary workers rights are at question.” One X user even called it a “very valid take.”
Social Media Reacts to the Controversy
For the unversed, Lenin directed the 2018 film Merku Thodarchi Malai, which Vijay Sethupathi produced. The film revolves around the life and times of a group of landless workers living along the foothills of the Western Ghats in India. He also wrote the screenplay for the 2013 film Aadhalal Kadhal Seiveer. Last seen in Coolie, Rajinikanth will soon star in Jailer 2 .
The controversy highlights a debate about the true meaning of philanthropy and the responsibility of celebrities to advocate for social justice. It remains to be seen if Rajinikanth will respond to the criticism.
