Kamal Haasan restrained by Bengaluru court from making ‘defamatory’ remarks against Kannada

A Bengaluru court has passed an injunction order restraining actor Kamal Haasan from making any remarks against Kannada.

Updated on: Jul 5, 2025, 07:35:48 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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The controversy around Kamal Haasan's remark on the Kannada language refuses to die down even a month after the infamous statement. Now, a local court in Bengaluru has passed an ex parte interim injunction order restraining the actor from making any remarks against the Kannada language.

Actor Kamal Haasan's statement on Kannada during Thug Life promotions sparked controversy. (PTI)

Bengaluru court restrains Kamal Haasan from statements against Kannada

On Friday, an Additional City Civil and Sessions Judge in the city passed the order after hearing a suit filed by Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP) through its president, Mahesh Joshi. According to PTI, the suit sought an injunction against Kamal Haasan from making any defamatory statements against the Kannada language and culture.

After hearing the complainant's plea, the court passed an injunction restraining Kamal Haasan from ‘posting, making, writing, publishing any statement or remarks claiming linguistic superiority over Kannada language or making any statements against the Kannada language, literature, land and culture’.

The court also issued a summons to Kamal Hassan and posted the case to August 30 for further hearing. The actor will now have to appear before the court on the next date.

Kamal Haasan Kannada row

The controversy surrounding Kamal Haasan in Karnataka stems from a statement he made during the promotions of his latest film, Thug Life. At the music launch of the film in Bengaluru in May, Kamal Haasan said that “Kannada was born out of Tamil”. The statement sparked widespread outrage among pro-Kannada groups and cultural organisations. After Kamal Haasan stood by his statement and refused to apologise, Thug Life was not released in Karnataka.

The film's makers, including Kamal Haasan, went to court and secured a victory, but quite belatedly. Eventually, the film was never released in Karnataka, and did not perform very well at the box office elsewhere.

Thug Life marked Kamal Haasan's reunion with Mani Ratnam after 37 years. However, the film failed to get much love from fans or the critics. Thug Life, which also stars Silambarasan, Trisha Krishnan, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Abhirami, Ashok Selvan, Joju George, Nassar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Ali Fazal, Sanjana Krishnamoorthy and Tanikella Bharani, grossed just ₹93 crore worldwide. It is now streaming on Netflix.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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