Nothing can keep actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan from speaking his mind, not even a massive language row which has impacted the release of his film ‘Thug Life’.
Despite being embroiled in one language controversy, the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief made his stance clear on the other language row – on imposition of Hindi in the South.
“I stand with Punjab. I stand with Karnataka. I stand with Andhra,” he told PTI, adding, “Without imposition, we will learn. Don’t impose, because this is ultimately education and we must take the shortest route to education… and not put hurdles in its way.”
The ruling DMK in his home state Tamil Nadu has long opposed the three-language policy introduced under the National Education Policy (NEP). The party has repeatedly accused the BJP-led NDA government of attempting to “impose Hindi”, a charge the Centre has denied.
Haasan on Kannada language row
The pan-India superstar’s latest film “Thug Life”, the 234th in a 65-year career, released in theatres this week amid controversy over his comment that Kannada was born out of Tamil.
He refused to apologise and the film did not release in Karnataka. “I am the actor from ‘Ek Duuje Ke Liye‘…,” Kamal Haasan told PTI, referring to his 1981 hit Hindi film about a Tamil boy and his romance with his Hindi speaking neighbour.
The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) had said it would not let “Thug Life” release unless Haasan apologised for his Kannada-Tamil comment at a promotional event in Chennai.
His banner Raajkamal Films International filed a plea before the Karnataka High Court seeking protection for the release of the film, which sees him reuniting with Mani Ratnam after “Nayakan” in 1987. After a rap from the court over the remark, the producers said “Thug Life” will not be released in Karnataka.
On ‘learning one language’
Stressing that the imposition of a particular language only hampers the learning process, the 70-year-old said, “I stand with Punjab. I stand with Karnataka. I stand with Andhra. This is not only place which is resenting imposition.”
The Indian cinema stalwart, hugely popular in the south as well as in the north with films such as “Nayakan”, “Thevar Magan”, “Sadma”, “Saagar” and Chachi 420″ that bridged language divides, said if you are truly looking at “international breakthrough” you must learn one language.
“And English seems to be fair enough. You can do Spanish also, or Chinese. But I think the most practical thing where the shortest route to that is that we have 350 years of English education, slowly but steadily. So when you suddenly replace it, it’s all over again. You make unnecessarily many people illiterate, especially in Tamil Nadu,” news agency PTI reported him as saying.
Tamil is one of the 22 official languages of the country, apart from Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Sindhi, Telugu, Urdu, Bodo, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri.
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