India's biggest Kannada star falls prey to Kannada chauvinism

India's biggest Kannadiga star falls prey to Kannada chauvinism
The Economic Times

Aishwarya Rai is set to conquer the world with Bride & Prejudice. The Western critics have been blown away by director Gurinder Chadda’s and Ash’s interpretation of Elizabeth Bennet, aka Lalita.

But Aishwarya is finding her home state of Karnataka — or rather one section of it, which has decided to attack non-Kannada movies — a tougher nut to crack.

The state, which is reeling under the seven-week moratorium imposed on new non-Kannada releases in the state, on Friday saw exhibitors defy the ban and decide to screen new releases.

Bride and Prejudice opened at a multiplex outside town and a city theatre on Friday without much brouhaha. Saturday was a different matter altogether. Activists of Kannada Rakshane Vedike flexed their muscle and today managed to yank the movie from the screen by stoning the place.

The multiplex has been giving heavy police security but the damage obviously has been done. One goes to the movies for a bit of fun and time pass, not to be at the receiving end of hurtling stones and breaking glass.

So, strange as it may seem, the ostensible aim to protect Kannada movies mean that you ban the movie with the biggest Kannadiga star (Ash, though a Mumbaiite, is technically a Kannadiga hailing from Mangalore) on Planet Earth.

But then, logic was never the premise on which the current obscurantist stand of blocking fresh non-Kannada releases was taken by a handful of people. The latter have no public mandate and the chief protagonist of the ban, Mr Basant Kumar Patil, actually lost the election for chairman of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce recently.

With the political establishment totally preoccupied with the ongoing campaigning for Bidar constituency — the popular perception is that the future of the current state government will be determined by the outcome of this election — or even otherwise completely engrossed in ensuring its own survival in the state, there seems to be no will to resolve this dispute. The only benefit without doubt has been to the DVD industry with piracy zooming.