THUG OF WAR: Kamal Haasan's Thug Life faces heat in Karnataka

Kamal Haasan’s Thug Life, caught in a controversy over the actor’s comment on Kannada language, will not be released in Karnataka on June 5, the scheduled date for the release of the movie across the country, its producers informed the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday. According to some industry experts, the film may lose at least Rs.30 crore if it fails to get released in Karnataka. Kamal has refused to apologise for his comment, saying that his comment “said out of genuine affection for the legendary Rajkumar’s family, especially Shiva Rajkumar, has been misunderstood and taken out of context."

When a petition filed by the film’s production house, Raaj Kamal Films International, seeking police protection for the movie in Karnataka, came up for hearing before Justice Nagaprasanna on Tuesday, counsel for the petitioner said that there was no malice and an apology was not warranted. The petitioner submitted that the screening of the movie would not be insisted upon in Karnataka till the issue gets resolved through dialogue. The court then posted the case to June 10 for further hearing.

During the hearing, Haasan came in for strong criticism from the court for his remark suggesting that "Kannada was born out of Tamil," and the court observed that a "single apology could have resolved the situation."

Justice Nagaprasanna asked, "Are you a historian or a linguist to make such a statement? No language is born out of another." Further, the judge said no citizen has the right to hurt sentiments and underlined that an apology "even a symbolic one," was missing. To this, the counsel for petitioner submitted that "an apology is needed when there is malice, not for a misunderstanding." Justice M Nagaprasanna said the actor’s statement has triggered ‘certain unrest in Karnataka’, and held that it undermined the Karnataka people’s sentiment of language.

Noted distributor and Tamil producer Dhananjayan, in his capacity as one of the vice-presidents of the Tamil Film Active Producers Association (TFAPA), appealed to the Karnataka film fraternity to create a conducive atmosphere for getting the film released smoothly. "Kamal Haasan’s Vikram is one of the top five-grossing Tamil films in Karnataka. The film minted Rs 22.10 crore collection. Considering those numbers, we thought that Thug Life would easily make around Rs 35 to Rs.40 crore in Karnataka. Now, the film stands to lose this amount."

Veteran Karnataka distributor NS Rajkumar said Kamal losing the goodwill of the Kannada industry was an even more costly error. "Vikram provided a new lease of life to single-screen theatres. In Karnataka, Hindi films are usually exhibited in multiplexes, while Tamil films get single-screen theatres. With Thug Life’s release in limbo and Pawan Kalyan’s Hari Hara Veera Mallu’s release postponed, single screens in Karnataka will be the biggest losers because of this issue," he said.

Tiruppur Subramaniam, one of the leading film distributors of Tamil Nadu, said the entire issue has become political, and this is an unhealthy trend. "I condemn the fact that political leaders in Karnataka and the Kannada industry have decided to target Thug Life for Kamal’s speech. The matter is being heard in the court and Kamal, at the end of the day, will abide by the court’s order. I find no reasonable excuse to target his film for that. Similarly, I am against some Tamil political leaders who want to stop Karnataka films from getting released in Tamil Nadu."