Tiruttani Municipal officials on Wednesday removed a 215-ft cutout of actor Suriya, on an iron scaffolding, erected by his fans ahead of the NGK movie release on Friday.

The cutout of Surya wearing a dhoti and shirt and holding a pandham (torch) was erected on a private land on the Tiruttani bypass road.

Suriya fans in Tiruttani spent over ₹6 lakh to put up the cut out, the police said. “It took them close to a month to erect the massive structure. They took a private land on rent and cleaned it. The painting of different blocks in the cut out was done in Ranipet to withstand weather conditions. The iron scaffolding was erected by labourers brought from different States and the work got over on Wednesday,” said a police officer.

G. Rajalakshmi, Municipal Commissioner, Tiruttani, said Tiruvallur Collector Maheshwari Ravikumar came to know about the cutout and immediately ordered its removal. “There is a ban on placing cutouts. We initially thought some work was going on in the private land, but it was only on Wednesday that we realised it was a cutout,” said the Commissioner. A major accident would have occurred had the scaffolding collapsed, the police said. “It is taking some time to remove the scaffolding as it is 215-ft tall,” added the police officer.