The 'offence' brigade seems to be in form. After a set for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati in Kolhapur was attacked for 'offending sentiments', veteran Tamil actor-director Kamal Haasan has become the next target.
A police complaint has been filed by an organization called the Hindu Makkal Katchi (HMK) against the actor for making statements that it claimed were against the Hindu community. The complaint was filed at the Chennai police commisionerate on Wednesday.
According to The Hindu newspaper, the complainants charged that Haasan, in a recent television interview, said the Mahabharat was a book in which a woman was insulted. Haasan had stated in an interview that the Mahabharat has the story of a woman being gambled away and yet is respected across the country.
HMK state secretary Rama Ravikumar was quoted in reports as saying, "Kamal Haasan said Mahabharat talks about a woman [Draupadi] who was used as a pawn and gambled away, and that this country reads such a book. There was no need for him to say these things. It has hurt our sentiments. Who is he to talk about the Mahabharat?"
Ravikumar also accused the actor of being 'anti-Hindu'. He said, "Will he ever speak against the Quran or the Bible like this? When Vishwaroopam (2013) was released, Muslims [several groups] had protested against the movie [for allegedly depicting the community in a negative light]. He had then said that there is no safety in this state, and that he should go somewhere else and live."
Another outfit, the Akhila Hindu Mahasabha, has also filed a complaint against the actor in Coimbatore. Protestors even tore posters of Haasan before they were stopped by the police.
The actor was recently pulled up for his remarks against the late chief minister J Jayalalithaa's attempts to block his film.