Chiranjeevi said, he felt humiliated when Hindi cinema was called Indian cinema
Veteran South Indian actor Chiranjeevi has revealed a moment in his life when he felt ‘humiliated’. In a program before the release of his upcoming film ‘Acharya’ in Telugu language, Chiranjeevi narrated an incident that happened in 1989.
The actor recalled that he was called to Delhi as his film ‘Rudraveen’ was being honored with the Nargis Dutt Award. He said that a day before the award ceremony, the government had organized a tea event, during which he was looking at a wall depicting the history of Indian cinema.
He remembered that the wall was painted with pictures from Prithviraj Kapoor to Amitabh Bachchan along with a brief description about him.
Chiranjeevi revealed, ‘I kept walking along the wall hoping to see something about South films. However, there was only a picture of MGR and Prem Nazir with Jayalalithaa on it. He only gave it the name of South Films.
“They didn’t recognize Raj Kumar or Vishnuvardhan, NT Rama Rao or Nageswara Rao or Sivaji Ganesan… even the veteran filmmakers of our industries. I was feeling very humiliated at that moment. It was like an insult.
Chiranjeevi further said, ‘He portrayed Hindi cinema as Indian cinema, while other films were classified as ‘regional films’ and were not given respect.’
He said that he had spoken about it then, but did not get any response. Although he takes pride in films like ‘Baahubali’ or ‘RRR’, the country is now recognizing directors, actors and writers from South India. He said that the films have broken regional barriers and have earned the respectable status of being a Pan India (National level) film.
As per the report, actor Chiranjeevi, who predominantly works in Telugu language films, said, “Baahubali made me proud, as it bridged the gap between regional and Hindi cinema and proved that we are all part of the Indian film industry. are part. These films have made the Telugu audience proud. Salute to SS Rajamouli for giving us films like Baahubali and RRR. He will always be remembered.
Chiranjeevi also praised Yash’s ‘KGF Chapter 2’ and Allu Arjun’s ‘Pushpa: The Rise’. He said that with the success of these films, these actors including Prabhas have become national level actors.
This statement of South Indian actor Chiranjeevi comes at a time when the Ministry of Home Affairs, in the 37th meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Official Language, quoted Amit Shah as saying, ‘Prime Minister Narendra Modi has decided that the medium of running the government is the official language and This will definitely increase the importance of Hindi. Now the time has come that the official language should be made an important part of the unity of the country. When citizens of other language speaking states communicate with each other, it should be in the language of India.
Amit Shah’s emphasis on Hindi language was strongly criticized by opposition parties and called it an attack on India’s pluralism. At the same time, the opposition accused the ruling BJP of trying to launch its agenda of “cultural terrorism” against non-Hindi speaking states.
Not only this, Tamil Nadu BJP chief K. Annamalai had said that we are Indians, there is no need to learn Hindi to prove it. He had said that his party would neither accept nor allow the imposition of Hindi on the people of Tamil Nadu.
Apart from Chiranjeevi, Kannada actor Kicha Sudeep had said that today we are making such films, which are earning a name globally, in reference to the tremendous success of South Indian films as compared to Hindi films.
Referring to the tremendous success of South Indian actor Yash’s film ‘KGF: Chapter 2’ in a video, Sudeep had said, “You said a pan India (national level) film was made in Kannada. I want to make a small correction. Hindi is no longer the national language. They (Bollywood) are doing Pan India films today. They are struggling (to get success) by dubbing in Telugu and Tamil, but nothing is happening. Today we (South Indians) are making such films which are going everywhere.
