The U.S. Consulate in Chennai has banned 200 South Indian film artists from ever getting a visa or traveling to the United States. This action was taken after a scam involving fake visas was busted yesterday.

The Consulate spokesperson said it wasn't confined just to Kollywood and Tollywood but Bollywood as well.

The scam worked roughly along these lines: a junior artist when applying for a visa to go abroad would also apply for another person claiming that he or she was a make-up artist. Later it would be discovered that the accompanying person was not from the film industry but had bribed a cine artist with money in order to illegally immigrate abroad.

When several media stations asked Sarathkumar to comment, he said it was a shame that a small part of the industry had been involved in something like this. So far the Consulate had not raised the issue with him, he said. The Cine Association, he added, would be willingly to even disbar these artists. While neither the Consulate nor the police released any names, the police told the media that several key people from the film industry could be linked to the scam.