Kamal Haasan’s Cheekati Rajyam is releasing in Telugu on November 20. While the Tamil version is out on November 10, the Telugu film was pushed back as he didn’t want a clash with Akhil’s debut film.
“It’s by mutual consent and will benefit both films,” says Kamal. Rajesh is making his debut as director in the film while Trisha plays the female lead. “I play a policeman in the narcotics bureau. It’s a fast paced thriller inspired by a French film,” adds the actor.
The film was shot twice, once in Tamil and once in Telugu. “Yes, we were forced to do it as for Hyderabad we had to change the vehicle number plates and police uniforms,” he says. However, the film was completed fast. “It’s because of planning and team work. We have done good pre-production work and we worked as a team with proper planning,” adds Kamal Haasan.
The actor has completed more than 50 years in acting, and when asked about his experience, he says, “I don’t look back because I made a lot of mistakes. I always look forward.”
Kamal Haasan is the only actor to have acted in all major languages like in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. So why can’t the present generation actors do so? “There is only one reason that I was able to do it…because of K. Balachander. He took me to Telugu and he took me to Hindi too,” he says.
Kamal remembers when Balachander insisted that he be the lead in his first Hindi film. “Producer L.V. Prasad told Balachander that I was asking for a high remuneration and told him to make the film with Rishi Kapoor or some other actor from Bollywood. But Balachander insisted on me and he told the producer that he would take a pay cut to take me in the film.” says Kamal Haasan. The film was the highly successful Ek Duje Ke Liye, and Kamal says that he had charged Rs 2 lakh as remuneration for the film at that time.
“Because of Balachander I was able to work in different languages,” says Kamal. Now, with the International Indian Film Academy (IIFA), coming to Hyderabad, will South cinema finally get its due? “No, there’s a long way to go. For me, national cinema always rested in South films. It is only recently that Bombay has started making films in other languages. Otherwise national cinema lived always in South cinema. If you look at Nagireddy garu or Rama Naidu garu, or L.V. Prasad, they all made films in other languages. Gemini made Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi and even Bengali films.
The national centre for cinema has been in Chennai, probably now Hyderabad. South should get respect. I am not talking about Telugu or Tamil, but if you look at the whole South film industry, we make nearly 600 to 700 films a year out of 1,000 made in the whole of India,” says Kamal.
The actor feels that instead of regional associations like Telugu or Tamil Artistes’ Associations, it should be Indian Artistes’ Association. “When a person comes from Hollywood and asks for an action sequence from India, you can pick regional talent too,” he says.
With many intellectuals returning their awards protesting religious intolerance, Kamal says that he won’t give back his awards. “I don’t think that returning awards is a good thing. I am not insulting those people who gave back theirs’, but I don’t think that for the sake of one government’s decision you give back the award. I will not give back my awards because those were given by a different mindset,” he says.
He also wonders whether the people are returning the cash prizes too. “If I am angry with the whole film fraternity should I return all the money that I have earned? I can’t do that, even if I am angry I will not give. These awards are the same and I don’t think that it’s a good decision,” he says.
But will he protest? “Yes, I will fight separately and I have always been fighting. I love people and I have friends in all religions. I don’t look at Gulzar Saab and think whether he is a Muslim or a Sikh, he is neither. But he used to be a Sikh and called himself Gulzar. You only remember the poetry. He converted to humanity and those people are my heroes,” says Kamal.
He adds that every government is intolerant and one can’t only blame the BJP. He said his film Hey Ram had got into problems because of the Congress government, which felt that it was against Americans. He also said that the present censor boards should be called certification boards
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