Controversies

### Income tax raid

On 5 February 2020, the Income Tax Department raided Vijay's residence in Chennai and inquired about potential tax evasion, regarding his investment in immovable properties which he inherited from the production studio AGS Entertainment. Vijay was investigated when he was busy shooting for *Master* in Neyveli. Nearly ₹65 crore was seized by the officials from the AGS Entertainment producer and film financer Anbu Cheliyan's residence. Later, the I-T department said that nothing significant was found during the raid and Vijay has paid all taxes. Member of parliament Dayanidhi Maran accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of politically targeting Vijay through IT raids because he was critical of the BJP.

### Protests by Bharatiya Janata Party

On 7 February, members of the BJP protested in front of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation (NLC) where the shooting of *Master* was going on. The BJP members protested against the NLC administration for granting permission for the shoot. Although the film crew had obtained permission for the shoot, the members of the BJP claimed that it is a highly secured area and it's not a place for a movie shoot and also threatened to continue their protests if the shooting did not stop. Soon, Vijay's fans started to arrive in numbers and protested against the party workers. The protesters and the fans left after intervention by the police.

### Theatre seating capacity in Tamil Nadu

The makers were given permission to release the film with 100% seating capacity in theatres with forthcoming other Tamil films by the Government of Tamil Nadu after Vijay personally requested chief minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami, despite the increase in COVID-19 cases in India, especially Tamil Nadu. Shortly thereafter, the Central Government of India issued a warrant against the Tamil Nadu government's decision to approve the release of the films with 100% seating capacity. The Central Government stated that 100% seat occupancy is clearly in violation of the guidelines of the Minister of Home Affairs which only allows 50% seat occupancy in theatres. Many doctors also protested against the film having 100% seating capacity. Soon after, Central Government notice was passed and it was revoked back to 50% seating capacity in Tamil Nadu theatres.

### Alleged film scene leaks

A day prior to the much anticipated theatrical release on 12 January 2021, some of the film scenes were reportedly leaked by few anonymous people in social media which triggered setback and controversy in the film fraternity. Lokesh Kanagaraj and Malavika Mohanan openly urged the audience not to share the film leaked scenes with others and firmly requested them to watch the film in theatres maintaining relevant safety precautions. Twitter later assisted the production team of the film to find who leaked the film scenes in the internet and it was revealed that a person who worked for a digital company for which the film copy was sold for distribution rights abroad had allegedly stolen the copy of the film and leaked them in the internet.

### Copyright infringement

On 12 January 2021, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore directed the CB-CID to file an FIR against the producer Xavier Britto pertaining to copyright infringement. The Court order comes as a result of the case filed by Novex Communications Private Limited, a music copyright company. According to the petitioner, few songs of the film were played at the film's audio launch which took place on 15 March 2020 without acquiring any copyrights from Think Music, one of the clients of the company.