The Tamil film industry’s two mega stars —Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth—who have often expressed strong views on contemporary politics, have taken divergent stands on attending the platinum jubilee celebrations of Murasoli, the official organ of the DMK, to be held on August 10.
While Mr. Kamal Haasan had agreed to be one of the speakers , Mr. Rajinikanth had excused himself from appearing on the dais.
“He has agreed to participate, but will not address the function. He conveyed it to our working president M.K. Stalin when the latter had invited him for the event. Mr. Stalin informed us about the development at the recent party district secretaries’ meeting,” said a district secretary.
“We decided to go ahead with printing the invitation after confirming Mr. Rajinikanth’s participation. He told us clearly that he would attend the function as one among the audience as he used to do in Thuglak magazine’s annual functions,” another district secretary said.
Even though the two actors have shared dais with DMK leader M. Karunanidhi in the past, Mr. Rajinikanth, seemingly nurturing a political ambition, opted out of appearing on the dais of a political party’s function.
The DMK is bringing out a souvenir to mark the the occasion and greetings of 13 national leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, vice-president Rahul Gandhi, CPI (M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and CPI general secretary Sudhakar Reddy have been incorporated in the volume priced at ₹3,000.
“We have published the picture and contents of Murasoli since its inception in 1942 to explain to the reader about its transformation from a manuscript magazine to a weekly and later to a daily paper of the DMK. We have also published notes to explain the transformation,” said K. Thirunavukkarasu,who edited the 512 page volume.