Mumbai: Veteran actor Kamal Haasan recently landed in trouble for his controversial comment on Sanatan Dharma at an event held to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Suriya’s charitable foundation, Agaram, in Chennai.
At the event, the Rajya Sabha MP and founder of Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM), while speaking about the power of education, said, “In this war, only education has the power to change the nation. It’s the only weapon that can break the chains of dictatorship and Sanatan. Do not take any other weapon in your hands. You can’t win with any other weapon. Because you will be defeated by majoritarianism; ignorant majoritarians will defeat you.”
However, Kamal’s comments on Sanatan didn’t go down well with the BJP State Secretary in Tamil Nadu, Amar Prasad Reddy, and he called for a ban on the senior actor’s films.
Calling for a boycott of Kamal’s films, the BJP state secretary shared a video on his X handle (formerly Twitter) and captioned it as, “I appeal to every Hindu – Boycott Kamal Haasan’s movies who wants to DESTROY Sanathana Dharma! Let this be a message: Speak against Sanatan Dharma, and face the consequences. Let’s see which actor dares to mock Hindus next.”
In the video, Amar is heard saying, “Vanakkam. Kamal Haasan, a very famous actor in his recent speech, he expressed his opinion that he wants to destroy Sanatan Dharma. Earlier, it was Udhayanidhi Stalin (Deputy CM of TN, actor) and now, Kamal Haasan. I appeal to every Hindu, every Sanatani, to teach a lesson to these kind of people. We should ignore watching Kamal Haasan movies, ignore even on OTT. Once we do this, these kinds of statements which hurts billions of Indians, billions of Hindus will not be shared by such people in public platforms. Jai Hind.”
I appeal to every Hindu – Boycott Kamal Haasan’s movies who wants to DESTROY Sanathana Dharma!
Let this be a message: Speak against Sanatana Dharma, and face the consequences.
Let’s see which actor dares to mock Hindus next.@ikamalhaasan 😡 pic.twitter.com/yTENyepx0y
— Amar Prasad Reddy (@amarprasadreddy) August 4, 2025
Condemning Kamal’s statement, BJP leader Tamilisai Soundararajan told ANI, “First, he raised the language issue, dividing people of different states. Now, he is raising the religious issue to divide people on religious sentiments.”
Criticising Kamal, Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) national secretary general, Surendra Jain told PTI, “Haasan cannot be innocent. He is deliberately working under an agenda to defame Hindu society.”
Earlier, Kamal had faced backlash for claiming that Kannada was ‘born out of Tamil’ while promoting his film, ‘Thug Life’ in Karnataka.
Following the controversy, his film’s release was halted in the state. The ban was later revoked by the Supreme Court.
