Talaq, meaning divorce, was performed three times in the Tamil language, each time to packed houses.

CNN: Silenced Cries

The Tamil language film was shot in the forests that border the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka where Veerappan lived.

BBC: Indian film on life of bandit Veerappan to be released

As The Wall Street Journal is aware, my father, Reform Party founder Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam, was sued numerous times for defamation, culminating in being bankrupted over a few words in an article published in the Workers' Party newspaper that he did not write and in a language (Tamil) whose written form he did not understand.

WSJ: Letters: Challenging Singapore's Defamation Laws

"The English-language film Dam999 was originally scheduled to be released on Friday in the state dubbed in Tamil as Anai999, " the Tamil Nadu Film Exhibitor's Association said in a press release sent to the BBC.

BBC: Official poster of Dam999

In 1965, violent rioting erupted across Tamil Nadu over attempts by nationalist politicians in the north to ban English and impose Hindi, the national language derived from Sanskrit, on the entire country.

CNN: Center Cut