Amitabh Bachchan speaks in Marathi to calm tempers

Amitabh Bachchan on Monday joined Tamil superstar Rajnikant in speaking the language of the state where some sections are targeting the Bollywood mega superstar on the “outsider” row in a bid to calm tempers.

Reaching out to Maharashtrians after questions were raised about his commitment to Marathi cause, the Big B spoke in Marathi language to tell he holds them “close to my heart.”

“Maharashtra has given me a lot. It has given me house, my wife… My association with Maharashtra goes back to over 40 years,” Bachchan told a TV channel.

Bachchan said his father had many friends in the state in the field of literature and that many of his poems have been translated into Marathi.

Bachchan has drawn flak from Maha Navnirman Sena’s (MNS) Raj Thackeray who questioned his credentials to do something for Maharashtra and triggered the ’son of the soil’ row. The Shiv Sena also targetted the star last Saturday by saying Tamil star Rajnikant had “dwarfed” him by siding with Tamil Nadu, the place where he is settled, in connection with the Hogenakkal row with Karnataka.

On Sunday, Rajnikant spoke in Kannada to cool tempers after he came under fire from pro-Kannada outfits and political party leaders for his reported offensive remarks against people of Karnataka over the protests against Tamil Nadu’s Hogenakkal water project. The star was brought up in Karnataka before shifting base to Chennai after entering the Tamil film industry.

Rejecting the allegations that he had insulted Kannadigas, Rajnikant told some regional TV channels in Kannada “I am not an unwise person to pass remarks that offend the sentiments of people of Karnataka”. The star said he was only referring to the miscreants fomenting trouble who needed to be reined in.

Meanwhile, two days after an article in Shiv Sena mouthpiece ‘Samana’ criticised Bachchan, party chief Bal Thackeray Monday sang a different tune calling Bachchan a “superstar of the entire country”.

“Amitabh is not just star of one particular state, but the superstar of the whole country. Hence it is improper to drag him into needless controversy of regionalism,” Thackeray said in an editorial.

In a front page article two days back, Samana had praised Tamil superstar Rajnikant, and
Thackeray had distanced himself from the remarks the same day saying it was not his views and that the actor was a family friend.

In Monday’s editorial, Thackeray made it clear that irrespective of what the Samana article had said, he had high regards for Bachchan.

The editorial also took a swipe at Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati for “harassing” Bachchan by raking up trivial issues and said this “is worthy of contempt”. 
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