Shivarajkumar’s Original Monster has gone on floors in Bengaluru, but the film’s muhurat ceremony found itself at the centre of a language debate after the actor referred to Hindi as the “national language” while speaking about the project.

Directed by R Chandru, Original Monster stars Shivarajkumar in the lead and is being made in Kannada and Hindi, with plans for a multilingual release. The film began production with a traditional muhurat ceremony attended by the team, including producer Uday K Mehta, BK Gangadhar and Geetha Shivarajkumar.

During the event, Shivarajkumar spoke about working in Hindi and his familiarity with the language. In the course of his speech, he referred to Hindi as the national language. The comment soon drew criticism on social media, with several people pointing out that Hindi is not India's national language.

The actor, however, was quick to clarify his statement. “I accidentally said Hindi is the national language while speaking. I meant to say it is one of the languages spoken in India. It came out in the flow of the conversation. Please forgive me,” Shivarajkumar said.

He also stressed that he respects all Indian languages and that Kannada remains close to him.

The clarification came almost immediately, keeping the focus from shifting entirely to the controversy surrounding the remark. Shivarajkumar has often spoken about taking Kannada cinema to audiences beyond Karnataka, and Original Monster is another step in that direction, with the film being made in both Kannada and Hindi.

For R Chandru, the film marks another ambitious project with Shivarajkumar. While the filmmaker has previously worked on large-scale commercial films, Original Monster is being presented as a story that looks at the idea of the monster not merely as an external villain, but as something that can exist within mankind.

With the film now officially on floors, the team is expected to reveal more about its story, characters and release plans in the coming days. For Shivarajkumar, however, the first day of Original Monster came with an unexpected side story, one he chose to address himself before it grew any bigger.