Tamil actor Sathyaraj aka Kattappa had nine years ago made an anti-Kannada comment over the contentious Cauvery water issue which has come back to haunt Baahubali 2.
The entire row started after a video in which actor Sathyaraj had made that comment surfaced and went viral over a fortnight back. The Cauvery water issue is a sensitive one for both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, a dispute over which the two states have been engaged in a bitter battle for years.
The film’s director SS Rajamouli yesterday, on Twitter, made an appeal in Kannada language to activists of some Kannada fringe groups who have threatened to stall the release of the film on April 28. The director sought to distance himself from the controversy and the comments made by the actor.
An appeal to all the Kannada friends… pic.twitter.com/5rJWMixnZF
— rajamouli ss (@ssrajamouli) April 20, 2017
However, his appeal failed to pacify the Kannada outfits who have called a `Bengaluru Bandh’ on April 28, the day Baahubali 2 is scheduled to release. The fringe groups have demanded an apology from Sathyaraj, who plays the key character of Kattappa in the franchise.
Vatal Nagaraj, head of Kannada Okoota, an umbrella organisation of Kannada bodies, in response to Rajamouli’s appeal, said, “…We are not against the film or Rajamouli. Until Sathyaraj tenders unconditional apology, our protest will continue.”
Nagraj said that the actor had in his derogatory comments compared Kannadigas to doogs.
Sathyaraj, in 2008, had said, “Tamils should not be like a tree which stands silently as any dog come and urinates on it.”
