The Swatantra Veer Savarkar [2024] co-producer makes bizarre statements that is unlikely to amuse Southern India, and is perhaps far off from reality.

Sandeep S Singh

By Mayur Lookhar

Sandeep S Singh surely has come a long way from his journalism days to becoming a producer in Bollywood. He, however, is no stranger to controversies, often drawing flak for his comments.

Singh made two bizarre comments earlier today (4 March) at the trailer launch of Swatantra Veer Savarkar [2024]. The film stars Randeep Hooda, who is also the director and co-producer. Whilst Hooda was very mature in his comments, Singh shocked many with his bizarre comments on Hindi language.

The producer was asked why this film was being released in just two languages – Hindi and Marathi? This was in reference to the absence of dubbed versions in Southern languages.

Out of some strange wisdom, Singh replied, “Why are you binding cinema to a language? Hindi is our national language”.

This immediately shocked the keen observers as India has no national language per se. As per article 343(1) of Indian constitution, India has Hindi and English as official languages, but there is no designated national language. Perhaps Singh sensed that he erred and was quick to add, “It should be Hindi”.

One thought that it was perhaps a slip of tongue but there was more to come from Singh. He rightly underlined the need to have the film (dubbed) in Marathi as Savarkar was a Maharashtrian from Bhagur, Devlali. However, what followed left many stunned.

“If you are saying why just Hindi. (Let me tell you) Hindi is Malayalam, Hindi is Kannada, Hindi is Tamil. We’ve divided it. (Otherwise) India has one language”, said Singh.

We’ve still trying to make sense of the above. The question was merely about why it will not be released in other languages? What prompted Singh to state such bizarre things? Only Singh can explain that in time to come.

That such comments come from a former journalist is all the more baffling. In April 2023, Tamil Nadu governor R.N. Ravi  had famously stated that Tamil is perhaps far older than Hindi, and if any language that can come closer to Tamil in antiquity, that would have to be Sanskrit.

Singh’s comments is unlikely to please our humble citizens from South India, who take pride in their respective language.

Swatantra Veer Savarkar [2024] is set to be released in theatres on 22 March.



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