Indian film director Arun Matheswaran acknowledged that his upcoming release Captain Miller, which has Dhanush in its leading role, was originally based on “a true incident” in 1987 during the Tamil Eelam liberation struggle, alluding to the LTTE’s first Black Tiger attack.
Speaking in an interview with Open Pannaa about his upcoming release, Matheswaran said that this was the “first time I am disclosing it exclusively”.
“This idea came to me much earlier,” he said. “My uncle is in the military. Some of the things he told me when I was young motivated me a lot to make this film. The genesis of this thing... it came to mind after hearing about a true incident that took place in 1987, during the Sri Lankan civil war.”
Statue of Captain Miller in Nelliyadi, Jaffna. 2003.
Captain Miller, the nom de guerre of Vallipuram Vasanthan, carried out the first ever Black Tiger attack on a Sri Lankan Army garrison in Nelliyadi in the Jaffna district by driving a truck with explosives into it on July 5, 1987.
At least forty Sri Lankan soldiers were killed in the attack.
Matheswaran however claimed that he was stopped from writing a film specifically on the topic as “they said it was too controversial and it can't be released here”.
“After that, I thought right, we can’t make that film here,” he said.
“To make it acceptable, I set the story in the pre-independence era so that no questions would arise and there would be no controversy. But still, it is a painful story.”
The trailer for the film was released on July 2, just days before Black Tigers Day which commemorates the real-life Captain Miller’s attack on a Sri Lankan army garrison in Jaffna. In the trailer, an illustrated Dhanush can be seen riding a motorbike with a rifle on his back and his face covered. The release has led to a flood of tweets and fan art work, many depicting Dhanush armed and masked.
Black Tigers Day (or Karumpuli Naal in Tamil) is marked on July 5 in Tamil Eelam and around the world.
In 2021, as tens of thousands of Tamils rallied as part of the Pottuvil to Polikandy rally (P2P), demonstrators also held a minute’s silence in Nelliady to pay tribute to Captain Miller in his hometown.
The film ‘Captain Miller’ is set to be released tomorrow.
Captain Miller
01.01.1966 - 05.07.1987
