National News

Suriya Who Opposed Hindi Imposition, Had North-Indian Character Slapped In Jai Bhim For Speaking Hindi, Attends Ambani Family Wedding

July 13, 2024
The Commune

In what can be seen as yet another display of blatant hypocrisy by virtue signalling Kollywood actor Suriya and his wife Jothika, they were seen marking their attendance at Mukesh Ambani’s son Anant Ambani’s wedding with his long-time fiancee Radhika Merchant.

The husband-wife duo has indulged in virtue-signalling the public over Hindi, over building hospitals and schools instead of temples in the past. Here is a look at their past actions.

Suriya

In 2019, Suriya opposed the National Education Policy’s three-language system. However, when it came to his own film, Kanguva, he posted on his social media X handle in six languages, including Hindi, to promote the film. Suriya had argued that the policy imposed Hindi on non-Hindi-speaking states and disadvantaged rural students.

After all the talk about Hindi imposition, Suriya and his family including his wife Jothika and two children moved to Mumbai in March 2023 into a ₹70 crore apartment.

In his film, Jai Bhim, in the Tamil version, there is a scene where a character gets slapped for speaking in Hindi. In the scene, Prakash Raj, who plays the role of a police officer, slaps a north Indian (who has been stereotyped as a ‘Marwari’ Seth) for speaking in Hindi and asks him to speak in Tamil. This scene is however absent in the Hindi version of the film. Many pointed out that this was deliberately done to appease the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu, the party which is known for inciting hatred in the name of a non-existent ‘Hindi imposition’.

Jothika

In a speech at an awards ceremony in 2020, Jyothika recounted that the Brihadeeshwara temple with all its grandeur reminded her of the palaces in Udaipur. As a part of her shooting, she had to visit a hospital that she found was poorly maintained. She used the awards ceremony as a platform to make a “public request” that people should donate money to schools and hospitals instead of putting money in temple hundi. She went on to say that schools and hospitals are just as important, if not more so, and that they deserve more support from the public.

Netizens questioned whether Jothika advised the Ambanis on how not to waste money on wedding and instead build hospitals and schools.

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