Kamal Haasan has been touring India to promote his upcoming movie Vikram. At a recent event in Mumbai, the actor and director said that movies speak a universal language and bring people from all walks of life together.
“Films speak a global language,” the actor said. We are a country with a lot of different people and great unity. We don’t all speak the same language, but we’re proud to sing the National Anthem. We all feel the same way about something. Films do their part to bring people together. This is the only place in the movie theatre where you don’t look at the caste and status of the man sitting next to you. You buy a ticket, and that’s the end of it.”
Kamal said that it was a reason to celebrate as long as an Indian film did well, no matter what language it was in. “It’s not a South Indian movie that’s doing well, it’s an Indian movie. That’s better than a Hollywood movie doing well. Mughal-E-Azam, Sholay, and a lot of other movies have been big hits across the country. Mughal-E-Azam is not just smart, it’s also brave. It took a long time to make the movie. We should treat each other with care. “Movies don’t have one language, they always bring people together,” he said.
In the 1980s, Haasan was in a lot of Hindi movies, such as Ek Duje Ke Liye and Saagar. Here, he was asked what has changed in how both industries work since then, and he said, “nothing.” When asked about the success of RRR, KGF 2, and Pushpa The Rise in the Hindi-speaking belt, the actor said that a movie like Sholay had a similar effect on the Tamil film industry. “For example, when Sholay came, some Tamil filmmakers said they would never let these (Hindi) movies come to Tamil Nadu because they could never make movies like that, so why should we let them? “Movies like Sholay and many others scared them,” he said.
Kamal said that Gulzar’s movie Achanak from 1973 was what made him want to become a director. He remembered how much those kinds of movies affected him, even when he didn’t understand the language. “When I saw Achanak, a great movie, I wanted to be a director, not an actor. I didn’t speak the language, but movies told me what was going on. No matter if it’s Mughal-E-Azam, Achanak, or Padosan, it always makes me feel something. Nothing has changed except that the people watching have had new experiences and have forgotten the old ones. He said, “I’m closer to the audience now than I was before.”
Kamal Haasan started working as an actor with K. Balachander’s Arangetram in 1973. Next year, he will have been working as an actor for 50 years. When asked if the way he signs contracts for movies has changed, he said, “I am on vacation and they pay me for it.” I love what I do, and I like movies just as much as you do.” He also said, “I sign it (the movie) with the same love I put into an autograph. Whether or not I signed that paper, I keep the promise. I am the son of a lawyer, so I know how important papers are. If they didn’t matter, they wouldn’t be important. My pen is my mind and my paper is my tongue.”
The actor from the movie “Vishwaroopam” talked about the one thing he regretted in his almost 50 years in the movie business. He said that he really missed Dilip Kumar and had missed working with him. He talked about the famous actor and said, “I love acting with other actors. I miss an actor named Dilip Kumar, who I really wanted to work with. I really took Dilip saab’s hand and pleaded with him, but he didn’t do anything. I wanted to make Thevar Magan with him, but it didn’t work out, so I gave it to another friend, who made it with Anil Kapoor and Amrish Puri (as Virasat).”