Kamal Haasan opens up on the North vs South debate; says “We learnt making big films from movies like Mughal-E-Azam and Sholay”

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By Fenil Seta -

May 28, 2022 - 6:54 PM IST

The North vs South debate has become very strong nowadays, especially after the South dubbed films became a hit in Hindi. The trend is growing with each passing year and next week, legendary actor Kamal Haasan will try his luck with the Hindi version of his much-awaited film, Vikram. Kamal Haasan is no stranger to this trend. In fact, he's one of the oldest players and his films like Hindustani (1996), Chachi 420 (1997) etc were quite popular in Hindi. He’s hence one of the pioneers in this regard.

Kamal Haasan opens up on the North vs South debate; says “We learnt making big films from movies like Mughal-E-Azam and Sholay”

Today, at the press conference of Vikram in Mumbai, Kamal Haasan was asked multiple times about this topic. He said, “Film is a language on its own. We are a country with a lot of diversity and yet, there’s fantastic unity. The people of Tamil Nadu don’t know Bengali. Yet, they sing the National Anthem in that language with pride. That’s the only Bengali they know (smiles).”

Kamal Haasan continued, “People claim that ‘South ki film succeed ho rahi hai’. However, I feel that it’s an Indian film which is succeeding, as compared to a Hollywood film succeeding here. We learnt how to make big films from movies like Mughal-E-Azam (1960) and Sholay (1975). Initially, we didn’t even try making films like them as those films were so big that Tamil or Malayalam could not afford a film like that!”

The actor’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) was remade in Hindi and he starred in the remake as well. When a journalist pointed this out, he replied, “Ek Duuje Ke Liye was doable. Anybody could have done it. All you needed was the brains like K Balachander. But making Mughal-E-Azam doesn’t just require intelligence. It requires guts.”

Kamal Haasan then also revealed that he was so enamoured by some of the classic Bollywood films that he almost worshipped those film’s directors. He admitted, “I have worked with the maker of Sholay. I never dreamt that I’ll even meet him. But I managed to work with him. So, we should understand and respect each other. If you think a film is good, appreciate it. Language doesn’t matter. Films don’t have language.”

The success of films like Pushpa, RRR and KGF have made Bollywood filmmakers insecure. Kamal Haasan said that in the olden days, it was the opposite. He revealed, “After watching Sholay, some of the Tamil filmmakers said that the Tamil film fraternity should never allow such films to be released in Tamil Nadu. They feared that they wouldn't be able to make a film of this sort. They should have aspired to make a film like Sholay but instead, they got scared of it. There were many other such Hindi films. In fact, I wanted to become a director, not an actor, after watching Achanak (1973). I didn’t even speak the language then but cinema spoke to me!”

Also Read: Kamal Haasan weighs in on North vs South debate – “For me, Kanyakumari is as much yours as Kashmir is mine”