Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth attended the 75th anniversary celebrations of the DMK mouthpiece Murasoli on Thursday. The two stars at the same event — it was indeed a rare sight.
While Haasan shared the dais with DMK’s working president MK Stalin, Rajinikanth was seen among the audience. Rajinikanth not sharing the dais with Haasan and Stalin, instead choosing to sit on the front row soon became a talking point. Reports are already doing the rounds about the political debut of the two stars, this just added fuel to the fire.
Political analyst Sumanth C Raman says, “Rajinikanth may announce his political entry soon. At this juncture, he doesn’t want people to identify himself with any political party. At the same time, he has high regards for Kalaignar and Stalin, that could be the reason why he chose to attend the function but not speak.”
Rajinikanth had given a speech at the recently-held Tuglak 47th anniversary function. “That’s because Tuglak has no political associations,” explains Raman.
Speaking at the event, Haasan said, “When I was invited, I had asked them whether Rajini will be giving a speech. When I was told he will be sitting among the audience, I also told them that I will sit with Rajini. Later, I thought, I would be a fool to miss the opportunity of sharing the dais with senior journalists. Self respect is important to me.”
He went on to say that many expected him to make a political statement, but Haasan said this is not the right stage for it. “If I had wanted to join DMK, I would have joined when Karunanidhi invited me in 1983,” he said.
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Haasan elaborated, “Karunanidhi had sent me a telegram in 1983 in which he had asked him to join the DMK. I had no courage to either reply to that message or show it to anyone else. I just kept it with myself. Till date, I haven’t replied to the telegram. It is Kalaignar’s generosity that he never brought it up with me again.”
He further said, “Many are predicting that Dravidian culture would vanish. But Dravidam (Dravidian culture) would continue to exist till the word Dravida exists in the National Anthem.”
Dravidian culture is actually a pan-Indian culture that spread from the Indus Valley Civilisation, he added.
With inputs from IANS