The production team behind Kamal Haasan’s film Thug Life has accused the Karnataka government of failing to protect them from threats following the actor’s controversial remark about the origins of the Kannada language. The filmmakers recently filed a plea in court, asserting that the state government has not registered a single First Information Report (FIR) against groups openly issuing threats.
Advocate A Velan, as quoted by a leading publication, detailed the severity of the situation: “A fringe group issued threats of large-scale violence, including the burning of theatres and attacks against members of the Tamil linguistic minority residing in Karnataka. Despite these open and public threats, not a single FIR was registered, nor was any prosecution initiated by the State Government. On the contrary, the government appeared to adopt the position of the very fringe elements that issued those threats. We are aggrieved by this inaction and are now before the Supreme Court, seeking enforcement of this Court’s past directions.”
The plea submitted by the Thug Life makers contends that this alleged inaction on the part of the government infringes upon the fundamental right to freedom of speech and expression, as guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a) of the Indian Constitution. In response to this, the Supreme Court has now requested a response from the Karnataka state government.
The controversy ignited during the audio launch event for Thug Life in Chennai, where Kamal Haasan made a statement connecting the origins of Kannada to Tamil. He remarked, “Actor Shivarajkumar is my family living in another state. That’s why he is here. That’s why when I started my speech, I said ‘my life and my family is Tamil’. Your language (Kannada) was born out of Tamil. So you are included in that line.”
Let’s see how the Karnataka government will respond in this regard.
