Thalaivi trailer released: Was Jayalalithaa's saree really pulled in the assembly?

— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) March 23, 2021

In the trailer, a commotion is shown in the legislative assembly, Jaya gets slapped and pushed down. And then we see her, gripping her saree, as its being pulled publicly. Dialogues follow wherein parallels are drawn between this scene and the legendary Draupadi 'cheerharan' in Mahabharath.

But what really happened?

On March 25, 1989, Jayalalithaa, the leader of the opposition and the first woman in the state to occupy that post, was assaulted in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. According to reports, violence broke out in the Tamil Nadu Assembly between MLAs of Karunanidhi's DMK and members of Jaya’s party.

According to The News Minute, her close aide Natarajan's (Sasikala's husband) house had been raided after a case of cheating was filed on him. An 'unidentified messenger' submitted Jayalalithaa's letter of resignation to Speaker M Tamilkudimagan who accepted it against the rules. Further, the letter was leaked to the press.

Members of the opposition were protesting against this when the situation got out of control. There are different accounts of what happened next, but Jayalalitha walked out of the assembly with her saree torn.

Incensed and humiliated, she left the Assembly, vowing that she would come back as the Chief Minister.

This was a defining moment in Jayalalithaa's career and Indian Express photographer Sivaraman managed to capture this. The Indian Express has the copyright of the picture and it is not available online.

In an interview with, The News Minute Sivaraman recollects the memory of clicking that iconic picture. He says Jayalalithaa met him, wearing that same torn saree, looking dishevelled. He clicked a black and white photograph looking through the hole in her torn saree.

Two years later, she threw Karunanidhi off the chief minister’s seat and rose to power.

The film Thalaivi is all set to release in theatres on April 23.