Tamil film industry fasts for Jayalalithaa

Southern India's film industry launched an eight-hour fast yesterday to rally support for political leader Jayalalithaa Jayaram, who was jailed for four years following a lengthy corruption case.
Some 3,000 directors, actors, producers and others were taking part in the hunger strike for the ex-film star turned politician, while the industry itself shut down for the day throughout Tamil Nadu state.
"We decided not to have any film shootings, editing, dubbing or movie screenings across Tamil Nadu from 9:00am to 5:00pm today," said Diamond Babu, a public relations officer in the Tamil-language film industry.
"This is a peaceful hunger strike without any protest to show our sympathy, love and affection to (former) chief minister," Babu told AFP.
Known as "Amma" (Mother) to her supporters, Jayalalithaa was jailed on Saturday in the southern city of Bangalore for illegally amassing wealth -- including gold, properties, hundreds of pairs of shoes and thousands of saris -- in a case that started 18 years ago.
A special Bench of the Karnataka High Court will hear today, the bail application of AIADMK general secretary Jayalalithaa, convicted in the disproportionate wealth case by a Special Court in Bangalore on September 27.
On yesterday morning, the court had adjourned the matter to October 6 after government lawyer Bhavani Singh, who was the Special Public Prosecutor (SPP) in the Special Court that convicted Jayalalithaa, informed the judge that he had not received an official communication on his appointment as the SPP for the appeal as well.
Subsequently, Jayalalithaa's lawyers moved an application before the High Court Registry for an urgent hearing today, which was accepted.
The bail application and the appeal against the trial court order will be taken up at 10:30 am today.