Ajay Devgn vs Kiccha Sudeep: Kashmir Files actor Prakash Belawadi calls it a ‘ridiculous’ turf war

Actor Prakash Belawadi, who has appeared in films across languages and regions, spoke about the recent Twitter spat between Ajay Devgn and Kiccha Sudeep. Ajay had tweeted directly at Sudeep, having seemingly taken offence at a recent comment made the actor about Hindi no longer being the national language.
Belawadi, who was most recently seen in The Kashmir Files — the only real Hindi language hit of the year — told India Today in an interview that he views the spat not as an argument on identity, but as a ‘turf war’.

He said, “Hindi is not a national language because there is no designated national language in India.” Belawadi continued, “I’m sorry to say this, I don’t want to hurt anybody, to me it looks like a turf war. Who is actually gaining a foothold in which market. For a long time, we have watched Hindi films in the South, certainly in Bangalore. Sometimes, Hindi films enjoyed a bigger market than Kannada films… We have worshipped stars of Bollywood before it was called Bollywood. To convert this into an identity battle of your language versus my language is ridiculous.”
The actor added, “These people, when they talk about language, they mean the film market. Many of these issues aren’t identity issues, they’re issues of turf. People feel encroached upon, and they feel annoyed if they say that they won’t allow dubbing. We should let it go, because in India, there are so many fault lines. We can go on endlessly othering each other.”
He said that he agreed with Sudeep’s comments, and that the popularity of Malayalam films on streaming and Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films in theatres is something to be celebrated. Sudeep said at a recent event when addressing KGF: Chapter 2’s success: “You said that a pan India film was made in Kannada. I’d like to make a small correction. Hindi is no more a national language. They (Bollywood) are doing pan-India films today. They are struggling (to find success) dubbing in Telugu and Tamil, but it’s not happening. Today, we are making films that are going everywhere.”
Ajay Devgn, who has a movie to promote this week, tweeted in Hindi, “My brother, if according to you Hindi is not our national language then why do you release your movies in your mother tongue dubbing them in Hindi? Hindi was, is and always will be our mother tongue and national language. Jan Gan Man.” The two appeared to bury the hatchet in subsequent tweets, although several others, from Manoj Bajpayee to Ram Gopal Varma, have since weighed in.