Our Bureau
Bengaluru
Mega movie star Kamal Haasan has been amidst controversy after his comments on the origins of Kannada language, native to people of Karnataka. Now the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah has come out and reacted to the comments made by Hassan and said that he is not really aware of the history of Kannada.
Kamal Haasan, who in addition to being an actor also heads a fledgling political party in Tamil Nadu, gave a comment stating that the Kannada language was born out of the Tamil language. Siddaramaiah did not take kindly to the comments and said, “Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it.”
The veteran actor was at an event in Chennai weeks before the release of his film Thug Life and there he gave the statement in presence of a Kannada-actor Shivrajkumar. In an act of trying to make the Kannada actor feel included, Hassan stated that Kannada was born out of Tamil and he considers Tamil language as his family and thus Shivrajkumar is a part of his family too.
He started the speech reciting a Tamil phrase which translated to, “My life and my family is the Tamil language. This is my family in that place. That’s why he (Shivarajkumar) has come here. That’s why I began my speech by saying life, relationship, and Tamil. Your language (Kannada) was born out of Tamil, so you too are included (part of it).”
The comment was not received well by other Kannada-supporters and they asked the veteran actor to apologise. The Chief of the Bharatiya Janata Party in Karnataka, Vijayendra Yediyurappa condemned the comments and stated that it was uncultured behaviour by Hassan and showed the height of arrogance of the actor who isn’t bothered to respect their language.
He stated, “It is the height of arrogance that an actor like Kamal Hassan who has acted in many Indian languages, including Kannada, has insulted Kannada by including actor Shivarajkumar in the glorification of his Tamil language.”
Kamal Haasan’s movie Thug Life is all set to release on the big screen on 5th June. The film also stars Sanya Malhotra, Trisha Krishnan, Ravi Mohan and Abhirami.
