Heat on star

Colombo, Aug. 20: The Sri Lankan government has accused actor Rajnikanth of being bankrolled by Tamil Tiger “blood money”.

A senior cabinet minister provoked controversy when he claimed some of Rajnikanth’s films were funded by the terrorist group. Abdul Rishad Bathiudeen, the disaster relief minister, claimed the actor’s fame and fortune were based on funding from financiers in London.

The minister said he had been paid “lavishly” in “blood money”.

While Rajnikanth has made donations to Tamil charities, including those for the 300,000 people displaced by the final defeat of the LTTE in May, he has never been accused of Tamil Tiger sympathies.

He was unavailable for comment, but one politician accused of benefiting from LTTE money laundering dismissed the claims as “sheer nonsense and political mischief”.