Kichcha Sudeep racked up an age old controversy through one of his interviews. He said “Hindi is no more a National Language; Movies like KGF are getting Pan India response, so, which should be a National Language?” I still fail to dig out rational behind his statement. If we go by his logic, he might one day come and say Amritsari Naan has a pan India following, so Punjabi should be a National Language. Isn’t it? If he would have said, Bollywood movies are not getting Pan India response and Sandalwood movies are getting Pan India response and people of India are rejecting Bollywood movies, it would have made more sense. Wouldn’t it?
However, bringing the success of KGF, KGF2 he actually made a point contradicting himself. KGF 2 reached a thousand crore club only because it was dubbed in Hindi. Below is a screenshot of its approximate collection after first four weeks:
Out of a total of 822 crores (first four weeks), 420 crores were because of Hindi collection. So, actually what he is saying to all the South Indian movie makers is that they should start dubbing movies in Hindi and get them released all over India; like it or not, Hindi is the only way forward. Mind it, I am not saying anything, I am just putting the numbers which I had to, because Mr. Sudeep brought this issue for only god knows why.
Movies released in Hindi making more money does make sense. Below is a table of native speakers in India:
Bare in mind that the table shows explicitly the number of native speakers, it does not reflect second language. For example a person like Kichcha Sudeep who speaks Kannada as first language and Hindi as second language, he is counted in Row 8 and falls in 3.69% who are Kannada speakers and not Hindi speakers. So, in reality the total number of people who can consume any type of content in Hindi is much -much bigger than the number mentioned in the table.
By resisting Hindi, regional movie makers were doing injustice to their own fraternity. It was the sole reason as to why Bollywood’s below average movies were making more money in the first place, or rather any money at all. South Indians for a long time have been writing good stories, everybody knows that, Bollywood has been blatantly copying their creative stories (I don’t know if they were simply plagiarizing or were buying the rights), the point is they were selling the exact same content, dialogue by dialogue and word by word and made way more money then the original South India movies. In what world is that fair?
Moreover, Hindi’s reach is not just limited to some states in India. It reaches Pakistan also. KGF actually became the very first Kannada Movie to be dubbed and released in Pakistan.
Art has no boundary after all”. Sounds familiar, isn’t it? Hindi diction and Urdu diction are same i.e. why Gandhi Ji wanted Hindustani (which in short was to add some more words to Hindi and was his way to appease Muslims of India) as a national language. I will give the details of course of National Language issue in India since its Independence in the post after this one.
I simply don’t understand why some people make Hindi Usage a prestige issue and take it on their egos even at the cost of their own businesses and lives.
Why do Indians learn English? Where does the regional pride go at that time? I lived in Germany for a few years, I have seen South Indians trying their level best to get fluent in German. Why?
As matter of fact celebrities like Kichcha Sudeep or Ramya are fluent in Hindi. Why? Why did Kichcha Sudeep learn Hindi?
The simple point is, a language is required to conduct your business. One learns German only because it helps him grow, its not a mandate to learn German. He does it because it helps him connect with the people he works with or does business with. Unless, someone has made up his mind that he would never go out of the tiny village or city he was born in, he can’t resist the popular language. Kichcha Sudeep has worked in successful Bollywood movies like Phoonk, Rakhtcharitra and more recently Dabangg.
Celebrities like Kichcha Sudeep and politicians like Siddaramaiah and Kumarswamy who know Hindi quite well are provoking their own people against Hindi, limiting their prospects. Why? Doesn’t it sound hypocrite on their part? Till some time ago, dubbing movies in Kannada was banned in Karnataka. Why? Because it would raise the competition level. Wouldn’t it? People would watch Hindi movies dubbed in Kannada, what would happen to Kannada film industry? Bollywood is one big reason why film industry in Pakistan got almost extinct; people entertained Hindi movies from India more then their own. If people start entertaining Hindi in Karnataka, politicians like Siddaramaiah, Kumarswamy or Yedurappa would find it really difficult to survive. Force frog in the pond kind of mentality on general public and these issues just go away.
I know you have a lot more questions- what happens to the diversity of language? Its not easy to learn a different language, why should one invest so much time and effort in learning a language when a person can invest that time in acquiring some other profit making skill? What did Gandhi and Nehru had to say in this case? What does Indian Constitution say about it? What language is the constitution written? What happened during the constituent assembly debates regarding National Language? I am going to publish part two for this National Language controversy, where I am quite certain, I would be able to provide satisfactory answers to these questions. Please follow the blog so that you get the notification for the next one. I will be quoting from the book India after Gandhi by Ramchandra Guha.
I hope you liked the article. Thanks for your time.
And by the way, he said everything in I assume Kannada except one line “Hindi is no more a national Language” – it was done on purpose to create an issue, Karnataka goes for assembly elections in less than a year. Maybe just testing waters.. hit and trial.. what can work and what not. I guess Hijab is not working.
Also read:
- Is Nepotism in Bollywood a genuine problem or a propaganda to hide something?
- The Mafia and the Propaganda; all in the name of Sushant Singh Rajput
- The Kashmir Files – Part 2; why you should not watch it!
