Bengaluru: In a significant legal development, a Bengaluru civil court has issued an ex-parte interim injunction restraining actor-politician Kamal Haasan from making any statements deemed derogatory or dismissive of the Kannada language, its literature, or culture.
The Additional City Civil and Sessions Court passed the order on Friday in response to a petition filed by the Kannada Sahitya Parishat (KSP), represented by its president Mahesh Joshi. The suit seeks to prevent Haasan from making any remarks that project linguistic superiority of Tamil over Kannada or that potentially insult the Kannada-speaking community.
The court order explicitly bars Haasan from posting, writing, or speaking any comments that could be interpreted as undermining Kannada’s linguistic and cultural heritage. It also directed that a summons be served to the actor and adjourned further hearing of the matter to August 30.
The case stems from a recent controversial statement made by Haasan during a promotional event for his upcoming film Thug Life, where he claimed that “Kannada was born out of Tamil.” The remark ignited widespread backlash from pro-Kannada groups, writers, and language activists, who labelled it as historically inaccurate and culturally insensitive.
The Kannada Sahitya Parishat termed the actor’s comments as defamatory, triggering legal action to protect the dignity and autonomy of the Kannada language and its speakers.
The legal action reflects rising tensions over linguistic identity in the region and reinforces the sensitivities surrounding language politics in southern India.
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