Forest Dept: Spl Teams Formed To Capture Leopard

The forest department has mobilised over 30 personnel to capture the leopard responsible for killing a 24-year-old man in the Hanagodu forest range, officials familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

- Arun Dev

BENGALURU: Kamal Haasan faced backlash from pro-Kannada groups after his remark that "Kannada was born out of Tamil". A police complaint was filed against him, while a film association is set to discuss a possible ban on the veteran star ahead of his upcoming release — Thug Life, directed by filmmaker Mani Ratnam.

Pro-Kannada organisations threatened to disrupt the film's release unless Haasan issues a public apology.

The actor on Wednesday said his remarks on Kannada were said out of love and that "love will never apologise". He said his response is an "explanation" and not an "answer",

Haasan said: "Politicians including me do not know enough to talk about language. Let's leave that to the historians, archaeologists and language experts."

He said his remark was made out of love while speaking to Kannada actor Sivanna.

On his Rajya Sabha nomination, Haasan commented in Malayalam. "Your (people's) voice will be heard whether it is Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada or Telugu or Hindi. People's voice matter, not language."

The controversy erupted when Haasan at the audio launch of his upcoming film in Chennai said "my life and my family is Tamil language".