These days Mani Ratnam’s megastar film Ponniyin Selvan 1 is in the headlines since the day of its release. “There was no such thing as ‘Hinduism’ during Rajaraja Chola’s era”… This statement of filmmaker and South superstar actor Kamal Haasan has created a ruckus. In fact, recently the actor was present at the special screening of Mani Ratnam’s ‘Ponniyin Selvan-1’. Where he talks about the recent opposition to portraying the protagonist Rajaraja Chola of ‘Ponniyin Selvan-1’ as a Hindu king after watching the film. He said that ‘in the time of Rajaraja Cholan there was no concept of Hinduism’ and even he said the word was coined by the Britishers for their own convenience.

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Although this controversy was not started from Kamal Haasan but it started from the Tamil director’s statement. Let us know, what did the director say that questions are being raised on Rajaraja’s religion. In fact, National Award winning Tamil director Vetrimaaran had said that Rajaraja Chola was not a Hindu king. Vetrimaaran had said during an event that “our symbols are constantly being taken away from us. Valluvar is being saffronised. Rajaraja Cholan is constantly being called the Hindu king. However, he was not a Hindu King and this information is tampered with”

Kamal Haasan

Let us tell you that Vetrimaaran’s remarks came a few days after the release of filmmaker Mani Ratnam’s much-awaited film Ponniyin Selvan-1, after which a debate started over the religious identity of the emperor. Now, it will be interesting to know where this topic will go.