Prakash Raj, the versatile actor, played a character in the movie ‘Jai Bhim,’ that slaps another character for speaking in Hindi.
The issue raked up a heated debate in social media almost immediately.
The movie directed by Gnanavel features Suriya in the lead role.
Some users on Twitter said the scene was taken out of context and that Prakash Raj’s character is not against Hindi but was trying to elicit the truth from another character.
Language Controversy is not new
The controversy follows another such controversy in recent times, when a popular food delivery app’s customer service executive told a customer that ‘Hindi is the national language and everyone is expected to know Hindi a bit.’
After the public backlash, the delivery service apologized to the customer, fired, and re-hired the staff member.
Social media users and a section of news media clarified that English and Hindi are official languages of the government, and besides that, there is no such thing as a ‘National Language’ for people.
Some Cabinet Ministers of India regularly tweet in Hindi with no English translation attached, leaving the translation work to Twitter’s software.