MUMBAI: Ajay Devgn stirred a debate after reacting to Kiccha Sudeep’s statement about Hindi no longer being ‘a national language’. Many actors and filmmakers including Manoj Bajpayee, Ram Gopal Varma, and Hansal Mehta joined the debate. It all began when Kiccha said at a press conference that 'Hindi is no more the national language' while refusing to call KGF 2 a pan-India film. His claim received a strong response from Ajay, who advocated for the Hindi language.

Rang De Basanti actor Siddharth Suryanarayan has now joined the discussion. He said that he finds the latest pan-India concept funny since south cinema is being made across languages for decades.

"I was working in five languages 15 years ago. I’m happy people are using words like pan-India. But this is just a new word for something that always existed. My boss (Mani Ratnam) made a film called Roja 30 years ago. If that’s not a pan-India film, I don’t know what these people are talking about. Ask your family about Roja or Bombay and then who made it, they’ll say Mani Ratnam. They won’t say it’s pan-India. Such films don’t need any tag. They just reach their audience,” he said.

Siddharth also added that he ensures that he dubs for his movies himself. "That’s been a very essential part of my career. Karan Singhania is a Hindi-speaking character, so I spoke in Hindi,” he added.

Actors, for long, have expressed displeasure at the usage of term ‘Bollywood’ and urge that it should be called ‘Hindi film industry’ instead.

Many are also surprised by the timing of the conversation, as it comes after regional cinema has earned huge success on the big screen as well as in the web space, with KGF 2, RRR, and Pushpa: The Rise gaining immense popularity.

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Credits: Bollywood Life