Key Points

Sanjay Dutt, who took part in the Tamil teaser launch event of his Kannada film, 'KD - The Devil', said, "We guys from Bollywood... we love Tamil cinema. We love Rajini sir, Thalapathy Vijay and all your actors. We also love Kannada actors and Telugu actors like the way they love us. These boundaries should not be there. I think one movie should be made by Prem sir, with Rajini sir, with me, with Dhruva and Ramcharan or Jr NTR and we combine and we make one movie where all the states are together. This is one of the best things. We love you all and we expect the same love back."

Sanjay Dutt's observation came in the wake of a mediaperson drawing the attention of the film's lead actor, Dhruva Sarja, to the fact that Kannada films were able to release without any hassle in Tamil Nadu while a Tamil film (Thug Life) that had released recently in other parts of the country could not be released in Karnataka.

Responding to the question, actor Dhruva Sarja said that people in Karnataka were hurt by a particular statement of actor Kamal Haasan that resulted in the prevention of release of his pan-Indian film Thug Life.

The actor said, "There have been a lot of Tamil films that have released in Karnataka even before I was born. So, nobody stopped any of those movies. Here, in this particular case, people there got offended by a statement of Kamal Haasan. Let me be direct and open about this."

He went on to say, "Here, everybody loves their mother tongue. Similarly, we love and we adore our mother tongue. When it comes to our mother tongue, definitely people will react. Except for that one film, all other (Tamil) films have released there. So, our Kannada audience will definitely encourage. When it comes to their self respect or mother tongue, they will definitely oppose."

Actress Shilpa Shetty too responded after actor Dhruva Sarja. She said, "I don't think audiences look for language. The only thing audiences understand is the language of cinema and that's the only thing that we have kept in mind."

KD -The Devil, which has been directed by Prem, features Dhruva Sarja and Reeshma Nanaiah in the lead. Apart from the lead cast, it also features V Ravichandran, Ramesh Aravind, Sanjay Dutt, Shilpa Shetty, Nora Fatehi and Yash Shetty among others.

Music for the film is by Arjun Janya and cinematography is by William David with art direction being handled by Mohan B Kere. The film, which has been made on huge budget of around Rs 150 crore, is likely to hit screens in October this year.

- IANS