Chennai: When actor Kamal Haasan sprang a surprise taking the political plunge ahead of Rajinikanth, his friend of over 40 years in the film industry, he made it clear that he won’t be attacking him personally. What he perhaps forgot to say was he would not be supporting Rajinikanth either.
Though the two super heroes have already indicated that their ideologies are poles apart – with Rajinikanth banking on ‘spiritual politics’ and Kamal Haasan preferring a ‘centrist’ approach – it did come as a surprise to many on Monday when the latter refused to help the superstar’s Kaala from escaping an unofficial ban by pro-Kannada groups in the Karnataka market.
The Kannada groups, seething in anger over Rajinikanth’s support to the Tamil Nadu viewpoint on Cauvery, have declared that they would not allow Kaala – set for worldwide release on June 7 – to be screened in theatres in Karnataka. The market in Bengaluru for the superstar’s film is huge but threats have forced the Karnataka distributor Saurav Sharma to back out from distributing the film.
Against this backdrop, when Kamal Haasan met Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday for a dialogue on the Cauvery, there were hopes that he would have also taken up the row over Kaala. However, Kamal Haasan shocked Rajinikanth’s fans when he not only said in Bengaluru that Kaala did not crop up for discussion but added that a film is not more important than the Cauvery issue.
Soon, the Twitterati started firing from all corners reminding Kamal Haasan how Rajinikanth had come to his aid in 2013 when Muslim groups grounded his own Viswaroopam. At that time, a wounded Kamal Haasan had threatened to quit Tamil Nadu but Rajinikanth, despite knowing that then Chief Minister Jayalalithaa was in no mood to help the film release and had imposed a ban, issued a strong statement appealing to Muslims not to block the film.
In fact, he said he was very upset over the developments. “I have known Kamal for 40 years now. I know Kamal wouldn’t hurt anyone. From the very fact he showed the movie to the Muslim community means he respects them. Rs 100 crore is spent in the making of the movie. We should understand how much he would have suffered. It really saddens me,” Rajinikanth had said.
Many saw politics behind Kamal Haasan’s hands-off approach on Kaala. Fellow actor Prakash Raj told a television channel, “He (Kamal) has his own reasons to not raise the issue but he should also realise that when his film Viswaroopam was banned, he wanted the entire world to stand by him. But I feel it is my responsibility and we cannot let this happen to any film.”
But before the rest of the film fraternity could attack him, Kamal Haasan made up for the fiasco. Arriving at the Chennai airport, said he was hopeful that Kaala will do well at the box office. Kamal Haasan said he hated politics that rides on popular movies and added, “It has happened to my films. Trade and truth will always win. I have confidence that Rajini’s Kaala will also win.”