Hey Ram is not about Gandhi — Kamal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB 29: Noted film maker Kamal Haasan on Tuesday said his latest cinematic venture Hey Ram, which drew protests for th...

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, FEB 29: Noted film maker Kamal Haasan on Tuesday said his latest cinematic venture Hey Ram, which drew protests for the way in which Gandhiji was depicted, was not a film on the Mahatma, “but a film because of him.”

Holding that `Gandhi bashing’ had been a sport which had been performed in India for a long time now, he said at a meet-the-press programme of the Thiruvananthapuram Press Club that it was not right to haphazardly or callously attack the person or deify him.

"Gandhiji was a great man. But he was certainly not the perfect human being. I get upset when people try to give him a halo and make him the second Jesus Christ."

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Kamal said the film had given him a chance to get his ignorance exposed when he did research on the topic. “But I am not ashamed because everybody, including myself, only know a bit about that great man, Gandhiji.”

Replying to a question, he said his film was about “what was slowly becoming a bad word – love.”

Asked to comment on the attitude of the censor board towards Hey Ram, Kamal said a girl on Monday asked him if the Censor Board was not an anachronism. “I fully subscribe to the view of the girl.”

He said the Censor Board need not be abolished but revamped in keeping with the changing times. The Censor Board was now taking care of only politics, religion and sex. It did nothing in the case of violence and many other social problems.

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Asked if he brought in famed actors like Shahrukh Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Girish Karnad and Hema Malini because he did not have confidence about the success of the film on the strength of the theme and production, Kamal said he only cashed in on the opportunity of getting all these actors without much difficulty at a time when producers were waiting at their doorsteps for their dates.

Replying to a question, he said Naseeruddin Shah had portrayed Mahatma Gandhi better than Ben Kingsley in Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi. He said, “Ben Kingsley is not an Indian and I am not a foreigner. Therefore, the character Gandhi was well performed by Naseeruddin Shah, an Indian”.

Asked about the fate of his film Maruthanayagam, Kamal said he had been waiting for a foreign investment. “It is not fair to load the local market.” He had finalised everything to shoot the film with foreign investment, but it could not be carried on due to the situation created by the Pokhran nuclear tests.

He said he had already spent Rs. seven crore for making a 30-minute portion of the film. He would have to shoot the remaining two hours and 30 minutes which will require another Rs. 35 crore.