Famous actor of Hindi and South films, Kamal Haasan has supported National Award winning Tamil director Vetrimaaran’s statement “Rajaraja Chola was not a Hindu king”. This debate went so much on social media that people started searching Raja raja chola religion on Google.
In fact, recently the actor was present at the special screening of Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan-1’. Where he talks about the recent opposition to portraying the protagonist Rajaraja Cholan of ‘Ponniyin Selvan-1’ as a Hindu king after watching the film.
He said “In the time of Rajaraja Cholan there was no concept of Hinduism and this word was coined by the British for their convenience.” The controversy started not with Kamal Haasan but with the Tamil director’s statement.
In fact, National Award winning Tamil director Vetrimaaran had said that Rajaraja Cholan was not a Hindu king. Vetrimaaran had made a statement during an event that “Our symbols are being taken away from us continuously. Valluvar is being saffronised. Rajaraja Cholan is constantly being called the Hindu king.” Let us inform that Vetrimaaran’s remarks came a few days after the release of filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s much-awaited film Ponniyin Selvan-1, after which a debate started over the religious identity of the emperor.
BJP leader H Raja was furious over Vetrimaaran’s claim. He rejected the director’s claim that Rajaraja Cholan was a Hindu king. Not only that, he said “I am not as well versed in history as Vetrimaaran, but it is known that Rajaraja Cholan had built two churches and mosques. Not only this, he also called himself Shivapada Sekaran. Then how did he not become a Hindu then?” Kamal Haasan came out in support of Vetrimaaran after the BJP leader’s statement.
Kamal Haasan advised not to exaggerate history. The actor said, “During Rajaraja Cholan’s time there was no religion called Hindu. There were only Vainavam, Shivam and Samanam religions. The word Hindu was coined by the British. They changed Thoothukudi to Tuticorin.” Not only this, Kamal Haasan has even said that there is a moment to celebrate ‘Ponniyin Selvan-1’ based on history.
Soon after Kamal Haasan’s statement #TamilsAreNotHindus started trending on Twitter. Check out some of the tweets: