Actor Vijay Sethupathi has decided to opt out of the film '800', biopic of Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan after outrage from Tamil nationalists, film personalities and politicians. 

Ever since the movie's first look project came out on October 13, several objections were raised by the Tamil community and the hashtag #ShameonVijaySethupathi trended on twitter as several users asked the actor not to be associated with the film.

The allegations said that Muralidharan was a supporter of the Rajapaksa government in Sri Lanka which is accused of committing genocide against the Tamil people.

Even though Muralitharan himself tried to explain his case, and argued that he never treated Eelam Tamils with disrespect citing his own Tamil origin, many point out there is footage and news reports suggesting the cricketer’s seemingly supportive stand for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the island-nation’s President who was the war-time defence secretary, and other remarks made towards the end of the civil war.

On Monday, Muralitharan said that he has given a go-ahead to the producers of 800 only keeping in mind that his story would inspire a lot of youngsters but never expected it to become a huge controversy. Murali requested Vijay Sethupathi to opt-out of the film as it would become a huge hurdle for his film career. Muralidharan thanked the media, fans of Vijay Sethupathi who supported him in the testing times.

Vijay Sethupathi has confirmed that he is withdrawing from the biopic. The actor tweeted a letter written by the former Sri Lankan cricketer, requesting him to withdraw from the film, accompanied with the words "Thank you, goodbye" in Tamil. Vijay Sethupathi's publicist Yuvaraj also confirmed the news to media.

நன்றி.. வணக்கம் 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/PMCPBDEgAC

— VijaySethupathi (@VijaySethuOffl) October 19, 2020

800, to be produced by Movie Train Motion Pictures and Dar Motion Pictures, has been receiving sharp criticism from a section of Tamils, including Tamil film industry veterans like director Bharathiraja. However, others like actor Radikaa Sarathkumar had supported Vijay Sethupathi. The production house had said in a letter earlier that the film will not hurt the sentiments of anyone.