Close on the heels of the announcement by director M. Rajesh (whose All in All Azhagu Raja is releasing on Deepavali tomorrow) about deletion of a particular anti-tobacco campaign dialogue by Santhanam in the film, yet another dialogue by the comedian in his upcoming film Endrendrum Punnagai (starring Jiiva and Trisha in the lead) has also been deleted.

Santhanam, whose on-screen dialogues have always paid no regard to a woman’s dignity, has been finding himself frequently in controversies of late. Santhanam had been ruling the roost in Tamil films in the absence of Vadivelu and during a lean period by Vivek. The recent spate of controversies hasn’t done any good to comedian Santhanam, who also faced a raid by income tax authorities yesterday.

Santhanam has played almost a parallel hero in many films but his dialogues have mostly reflected his insensitivity towards women and his I-don’t-care attitude while speaking about women. His take-off on the Govt. of India’s anti-tobacco campaign in All in All Azhagu Raja drew widespread criticism and condemnation following which Rajesh announced that the particular sequence had been deleted from the film.

A casual comment by Sathanam, again an insensitive one, in Endrendrum Punnagai has come in for harsh criticism by film-makers and women’s right activists. The said sequence has Santhanam saying to a woman that she could ‘go’ for Rs.500 or Rs.1000 in reply to her statement that she might have to leave at 05:10. In typical Santhanam style, the women’s reply had been distorted.

Director Ahmed has now announced that the said dialogue has been deleted from the trailer of the film as well as the final version. Also starring Vinay Rai and Andrea Jeremiah, Endrendrum Punnagai is to release shortly but no release date has so far been announced.