Bollywood actor Amir Khan starrer Lal Singh Chaddha, is set to hit the screen on August 11, 2022. The film is the Hindi adaptation of Tom Hank’s 1994 classic Forrest Gump.
It is produced by Aamir Khan Productions, Kiran Rao, and Viacom18 Studios, and stars Naga Chaitanya, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Mona Singh, and Naga Chaitanya in supporting roles.
Even before its release, the film has met with resistance from people with calls for its boycott owing to Amir Khan’s remarks about ‘rising intolerance’ in India that he made in 2015. The hashtag #BoycottLalSinghChaddha has been trending all over social media for the last two weeks.
In Tamil Nadu, the film is being distributed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin under his production banner Red Giant Movies.
It is worth mentioning that the DMK is a party that is known for its anti-Hindi politics. The party introduced language-chauvinism to the Tamil people through the anti-Hindi agitations of the 1960s.
The DMK had even come up with a T-shirt campaign called ‘Hindi Theriyathu Poda’ (“I don’t know Hindi, Get lost!”) in 2020, claiming to resist ‘Hindi imposition’.
In fact, the leader and cadres of DMK leave no opportunity to ridicule Hindi-speakers as paanipuri walas. Its own Higher Education Minister K. Ponmudy said that it is not necessary to learn Hindi as speakers of that language can be found selling only Pani Pooris. DMK MP from Dharmpuri had derogated north-Indian states especially the Hindi-belt states as ‘Cow Piss States’.
That being the case, the top leaders of the DMK and their family members have no qualms in embracing Hindi themselves. They run schools that teaches Hindi. More than 40 schools run by the DMK leaders or their relatives are affiliated to the CBSE and follow the three language policy with one of the languages being Hindi.
Stalin’s daughter, Senthamarai Sabarisan runs the Sunshine Senior Secondary School where Hindi is mandatory till class 8.
DMK Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva had sung a famous Hindi song ‘Ek Pyar Ka Nagma Hai’ at the farewell function of Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
And now, the DMK has gone one step further with Red Giant Movies distributing Lal Singh Chaddha in Tamil Nadu. This is the first Hindi film to be distributed by Red Giant Movies belonging to DMK MLA Udhayanidhi Stalin.
At the film promotion held recently, a reporter had posed a question to DMK’s crown prince Udhayanidhi Stalin pointing out the brazen hypocrisy of DMK on the issue of Hindi to which the latter replied that the DMK was never opposed to learning Hindi but was only against forceful imposition of Hindi.
அடிச்சான் பாருங்க அந்தர் பல்டி 😂 pic.twitter.com/ECT3uVdIRL
— வெ.ராமநாதன் (@Ramanat68029754) August 7, 2022
This is the convoluted logic that the DMK puts up in defence whenever they are confronted with such difficult questions. The Dravidian Stockists try really hard to buttress with the argument that ‘business is different from politics’ when in fact there is no such distinction especially for the DMK.
The DMK must understand that the Tamil people aren’t as gullible as they were 50 years ago.
With RedGiantMovies distributing LalSinghChaddha in TamilNadu, DMK’s hypocrisy on Hindi stands naked just like AmirKhan in PK.Sooner or later, the DMK will stand naked just like Amir Khan in PK.
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