MUMBAI: In Tamil Nadu, politics always wins. While Kites has fallen flat with the cinema hall owners boycotting the movie in the state, it is the political drama Raajneeti that is being shown in the theatres.

The entire cast of Raajneeti didn‘t go to Colombo to the IIFA after the South India film industry threatened to ban actors attending the function, a move that has gone down well with the fraternity in Tamil Nadu.

The Hrithik Roshan-starrer Kites, however, could not fly long and the cinema theatres yesterday banned the film from screening in Tamil Nadu.

The act is seen as a result of the showdown Bollywood had with the South India film industry when several actors namely Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Govinda and Anil Kapoor, among others, attended the IIFA awards in spite of being warned not to.

Says film critic Bhawana Somaaya, "I was always of the view that holding of the IIFA awards in Sri Lanka was not the right decision. The TN film chamber had requested the Bollywood film fraternity to stay away from the awards, going by the torture Tamilians are facing there day in and out."

The South India film fraternity warned that Bollywood should not go out to celebrate "where our brethren are suffering."

Other future films that could also take a hit are the Sanjay Dutt starrer Lamha and Sunil Shetty‘s Red Alert.

"Some Bollywood artistes did attend the awards ceremony. Resultantly, the film fraternity in Tamil Nadu has picked up a fight and have taken the first step and pulled down Kites. I feel this fight is set to go fiercer," observes Somaaya.