EXCLUSIVE: Kamal Haasan reveals he was told NOT to make Hey Ram, here’s how he reacted

Cinema is nothing less than a religion in India with people worshipping actors like Gods and film releases being celebrated as festivals. It is one of those factors that unifies the country and brings it together. Cinema is a form of art and art doesn’t discriminate on any basis of race, caste, creed, religion or anything, but in today’s time many believe that even movies are being used as a means of promoting discriminations and creating divide between people. Recently, veteran actor Kamal Haasan got into a conversation with Bollywood Bubble where he spoke about this issue and his take on it.

 

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During a recent press conference for his upcoming release Vikram, Kamal Haasan had said that cinema is such a unifying factor in India as when you are sitting next to someone in a theatre, you don’t question which religion or community are they from or what language they speak. But it is believed by some that today a lot of discrimination is propagated through films, directly or indirectly, and when mentioned that, Haasan replied, “It’s always there, the division. The separationists, the divisionists, they will always be there, we have to rise above that and we have risen above it. We have seen lakhs and lakhs killing each other, there was no dictator telling them to do it. The same number that almost what a dictator like Hitler killed, happened within a month or two in India and there were two communities.”

He even went on to reveal that people had questioned his decision to make a film like the 2000 release Hey Ram and he shared his reaction to that with us. He shared, “Somebody said why do you want to make a film like Hey Ram, we have forgotten all that. That was 20 years ago that they said we had forgotten all that and I said that no my friend, we haven’t.” 

For the unversed, Hey Ram was a fictional drama that told the story of a disillusioned man who tries to kill Mohandas Gandhi. His wife is killed in a sectarian violence, following which he becomes a Hindu extremist and begins to blame Gandhi and his tolerant approach to religious differences for it. Concerned only with his idea of vengeance, the man is consumed with hatred and zealotry. The film features Haasan in the lead along with Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukerji and Naseeruddin Shah. Hey Ram also garnered 3 National Film Awards.

You can watch the entire interview with Kamal Haasan here:

Also Read: EXCLUSIVE: Did you know- Shah Rukh Khan just got a wristwatch from Kamal Haasan as fee for Hey Ram