Hindi is not our national language: Sonu Nigam on Ajay Devgn-Sudeep debate

Singer Sonu Nigam has become the latest person to give his opinion on the Ajay Devgn-Kichcha Sudeep debate over Hindi being the national language.

At a recent event moderated by journalist Sushant Mehta, the National Award-winning singer said, "As far as I know, nowhere in the Constitution it is written that Hindi is our national language. It might be the most spoken language, but not the national language. In fact, Tamil is the oldest language. There is a debate between Sanskrit and Tamil. But, people say Tamil is the oldest language in the world."

Sonu further said that there are enough issues needed to be resolved with other nations and it is futile to start a new problem within the country. "Aren’t we facing enough issues with other countries that we are starting one within our own? Why is this discussion even happening?” he said.

He also asserted that people should not be forced to speak one language. "Punjabis can speak in Punjabi, Tamilians can talk in Tamil and if they are comfortable they can talk in English. Even all our court judgements are given in English," said the singer.

Sonu added that English is not a foreign language anymore and has become a part of our culture. “Let’s not divide further in our country, already there is so much going on.”

Earlier, responding to a question about pan-Indian films, Kichcha Sudeep had said, "Someone said that a pan India film was made in Kannada. I'd like to make a small correction. Hindi is no more a national language. They (Bollywood) are doing pan-India films today. They are struggling by dubbing in Telugu and Tamil, but it's (success) not happening. Today we are making films that are going everywhere."

In response, Ajay, writing in Hindi, tweeted to Sudeep asking why he dubs his movies in the language.

"My brother, if according to you Hindi isn't our national language, then why do you dub films in your mother tongue and release them in Hindi? Hindi was, is and will always be our mother tongue and national language. Jan Gan Man," Ajay wrote.

This led to a debate and many actors and filmmakers, including Manoj Bajpayee, Ram Gopal Varma, and Hansal Mehta gave their two cents on the issue.