Radical leftist and actor Prakash Raj has come under criticism after remarks made during his speech at the Kerala Literature Festival in January 2026 resurfaced online, with clips from the talk, published in March on YouTube, now circulating widely on social media.
A criminal case has been filed against him for making the inflammatory remarks. But there is another aspect in his speech that has been missed. He, like every other leftist, propagates the North-South divide and also goes to the extent of saying North has no culture and diversity while the South has.
Talking about Hindi cinema, Prakash Raj said, “See once cinema just becomes a business, they lose. I think probably me, Rajamouli and Prashant, we were discussing that why are dubbed films doing very well in the B, C centers. Then he was saying no after the multiplexes the Bombay film industry started making films only for multiplexes you know very cute films and things like that because they were earning well and they went into that page three and they lost touch with rural Rajasthan Bihar and they see this loud films dubbed, there’s some connection and also I think in Hindi cinema when post-independence whether it is fantasy or commercial films, it was nation building you know there would be Amar akBar Anthony where three people can give blood of three religions to one mother so those sort of lot of nation building films were happening. now it is not so, now it is money, it is fake, reels, how much of page three I am there trying to create promotions yelling at the top of the voice and I think that is where they have lost that connect with the audience.”
When asked whether the ‘Hindutva regime was using
films as a propaganda vehicle’, he said, “See you have to give me that because four years back I said they’re going to invest crores of rupees into it, they are investing but do you think they are successful yes they make a film on Mr. Modi, it runs it earns only 30 crores but they banned a film like Padmawati which earned 500 crores. Now the greatest joke is Dhurandhar. They thought it is a propaganda film. I asked people the villain has become popular. So it has backfired for them. Anybody ask not propaganda not the commercial film. My god what swag the villain was now. Now they don’t know the the it is like that brahmastra or something it has come back and ricocheted to them and all the piles they are making whatever files they are making it is sinking – emergency Kangana Ranaut, where are they, where are they just I don’t know.”
Responding to a question on whether cultural resistance is possible in the present context, he said, “Cultural resistance is also the answer. culture, cinema, art has always showed it resilience has always fought back in all the histories of the world whenever the fascists or racists have come from Hitler has been a cultural revolution and I think that is what we are doing here today.”
He continued, “Today KLF (Kerala Literature Festival) is witness and I wish the right wing or the bhakts should understand, who is coming here a noble laureate is coming here Romila Thapar is coming here, great writers are coming here, actors are coming here and all of them are talking about love and there is a resilience which has started. You can’t bury a voice and cultural resistance is happening; it is happening through songs, through theater, through discussions and it is the only hope and art will fight back.”
Next the interviewer asked, “But our cultural resistance in India it is there in south but when you go to the north what is the condition?”
Prakash Raj snaps instantly saying, “Because they are not rich culturally there. What are they? I was talking the other day, they are a landlocked place, they have only inland experiences of somebody coming on them, taking them. I’m sorry we might have not had the pain of partition, they have suffered more but they have not learned the lesson, but we south India is not a landlocked place. We have grown with collaborations. We have had St. Thomas coming down to preach his this thing. We have had Vasco da Gama who has come here because of the seas and we have five four different languages. We have collaborating and living. We have every 100 kilometers we have different food, different language, different dialects. We are a very robust space. We are diversity and we are rich. Why they can’t come here is because of that. What history do they have? So I understand that that is why the right wing is more strong and more brainwashed there. But now they are also getting the heat. Look at the migration. They are coming here to Kerala to live, coming to Karnataka coming to Chikmangalur, coming to Tamil Nadu, coming to Bangalore. And that is our problem. We are open because we have always accepted diversity. We have always accepted diversity but don’t come and impose. Don’t come and impose.”
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