Udhayanidhi's remarks on North vs South movies spark row; BJP hits back

In the eye of a storm over his controversial comments on Santana Dharma in the past, Tamil Nadu Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin has triggered another row by claiming that apart from Bollywood, no northern state has a film industry as thriving as those in South India.

“The Tamil film industry now generates billions in revenue. Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada cinema are also thriving. But does any language in North India have an industry as vibrant as ours? The answer is a big no. Almost all the languages spoken in the North have given way to Hindi,” he said.

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“Mumbai extensively produces Hindi films now, with Marathi, Bhojpuri, Bihari, Haryanvi, and Gujarati cinema receiving far less attention. Many northern states don’t even have their own film industries,” Udhayanidhi said at a literary function in Kerala's Kozhikode on Saturday, according to India Today.

Reflecting on the 1950s, Udhayanidhi explained Tamil cinema was then ‘heavily Sanskriticised’ and accessible only to ‘the Upper Caste and affluent audiences.’ He credited the Dravidian movement with making cinema more inclusive, enabling people from all backgrounds to enjoy films.

Elaborating on the origin of the Dravidian movement and the struggles for linguistic and cultural identity, Udhayanidhi spoke about how the Dravidian movement had resisted Hindi dominance, and how Hindi has subsumed local languages in northern states. “If we failed to protect our language, Hindi would take over our culture and erode our identities. That is why we led the anti-Hindi movement, not because we had any hatred towards the Hindi language,” the DMK leader added.

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Meanwhile, the BJP has hit out against the DMK leader for his remarks. Tamil Nadu BJP vice-president Narayanan Thirupathy called Udhayanidhi a ‘failed actor’ and a ‘failed film personality.’

“He speaks like that because of his immaturity and lack of knowledge…they are trying to divide the country. His own production company is taking Hindi versions of Tamil films and making huge money. To make money, they want Hindi and to be in power, they don't want people to learn Hindi,” Thirupathy stated.