After KRV uproar, Singham mews

BANGALORE: The Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) on Saturday demanded Reliance Big Entertainment, a unit of Dhirubhai Ambani Group which produced the Hindi film Singham, to remove the purported derogatory dialogues on Kannadigas in it immediately.Addressing the media, KFCC president Basantkumar Patil said that it has become a habit for Reliance Big Entertainment to commit mistakes and later offer an apology.“I want to make it clear that KFCC will support the agitation of various Kannada organisations against derogatory dialogues in the film. The company is not following the 24-print norm while releasing other language films in Karnataka,” said Patil.Cautioning Reliance Big Entertainment not to play with the sentiments of Kannadigas, he said, “The day is not far away for Kannadigas to force the company to leave Karnataka,” he said.KFCC treasurer Sa Ra Govindu said that the Censor Board should have advised the movie’s director to remove such dialogues.“They [Censor Board] are also responsible for this incident. It is not advisable to ignore dialogues that hurt the sentiments of a particular state that has a border dispute with an another state,” he added.He demanded Reliance Big Entertainment to remove the derogatory dialogues from the movie’s prints being screened at theatres in other states.“The KFCC will not allow the screening the movie in Karnataka if such dialogues are removed elsewhere as well,” Govindu said categorically.Meanwhile, Reliance Big Entertainment has offered an apology to the people of Karnataka.“We apologise for any dialogue or scene in the movie Singham which may have unwittingly upset/ hurt the sentiments of the people,” it said in a press release.Prakash Raj, who played the villain in Singham, has also issued a release offering an apology to the people of Karnataka.“As an actor in the movie, I would like to offer my unequivocal apology to the people of Karnataka.I too am a proud Kannadiga and would do never do anything deliberate to hurt the sentiments of my people,” he said.In the meantime, Singham director Rohit Shetty and actor Ajay Devgun have also tendered apologies.