Arjun Rampal backs Ajay Devgn: ‘Hindi has been our national language, we should respect that’

Arjun Rampal and Kangana Ranaut have been promoting their upcoming action thriller Dhaakad, also starring Divya Dutta. Arjun, who is generally media shy, weighed in on Ajay Devgn-Kiccha Sudeep Twitter row regarding Hindi.
In an interview with Indian Today, Arjun said, “India is a very diverse, secular and colourful country with so many different languages, cultures, festivals and religions. We all live here together peacefully and happily. I think language is nothing. What’s most important for me is the emotion. I think Hindi has been our national language and we should respect that. And it is spoken the most and understood the most in this diverse country to communicate. But that is not taking away from any other language.”

Arjun also lauded India’s diversity and its rich culture and shared that he believes that all languages and cultures should be celebrated. “Since we live in such a diverse nation, it would be great to imbibe everybody’s different cultures. Learn a little bit of Tamil, learn a little bit of Telugu. I have been to Tamil Nadu to study, so I picked up quite a bit of Tamil when I was there. And when you go to Punjab and live there for a few months, I have been shooting there, so you pick up a lot of Punjabi. Or if you go to Gujarat, you pick up Gujarati. I live in Maharashtra, so I know Marathi. It’s amazing and there’s enjoyment in all these languages. We should celebrate them.”

At the trailer launch of Dhaakad, when Kangana Ranaut was asked about her thoughts on the national language debate, she had said Sanskrit should be India’s national language.
“If you ask me which language should be the national language, then I think it should be Sanskrit. Sanskrit is older than Kannada, Tamil, Gujarati or Hindi. All these languages have come from Sanskrit. Then why hasn’t Sanskrit become the national language and Hindi has? I don’t have an answer to this. These are the decisions taken at that time (when the Constitution was written).”
Kangana and Arjun’s Dhaakad, directed debutante filmmaker Razneesh Ghai, is scheduled to release in theatres on May 20.