'Hindi was, is, and will always be national language': Ajay Devgn counters Kannada actor Kichcha Sudeep

Actor Sudeep Sanjeev, known as Kichcha Sudeep, while speaking to the media at the trailer launch of the film "R: The Deadliest Gangster Ever" corrected someone on the use of the term "pan-India" regarding the reach of movies.

Responding to a comment on the recently released blockbuster "K.G.F: Chapter 2", which has done tremendously well even in North India, Sudeep reportedly said, "everyone says that a Kannada film was made on a pan-India level but a small correction is that Hindi is not a national language anymore."

Taking a dig at the Bollywood industry, he added that many pan-India Hindi movies are released in Telugu and Tamil but they struggle to find success on the same scale.

"Today we are making films that are going everywhere," he said.

In response to the comment, Ajay Devgn, who often makes films on nationalism and patriotism, tagged the Kannada actor on Twitter and asked him why he releases Hindi dubbed versions of movies made in his mother tongue.

"@KicchaSudeep my brother, according to you if Hindi is not our national language then why do you release your mother tongue movies by dubbing them in Hindi? Hindi was, is and always will be our mother tongue and national language. Jan Gan Man," he tweeted in Hindi.

Sudeep then responded to Devgn's counter, claiming he made the remark in a different context and that it wasn't to "hurt, provoke or to start any debate".

In another tweet, the Kannada actor said he "loves and respects" every language of our country and said he hopes to see him soon.

Several south Indian films have recently seen unprecedented success at the box office in the northern part of the country too.

This is leading to a lot of debate on why Hindi language movies aren't as successful in the south.

The debate on Hindi imposition surfaced again after Union Home Minister Amit Shah recently said that Hindi, and not local languages, should be accepted as an alternative to English.

Opposition parties slammed the remark, calling it an assault on India's pluralism and that it is a move to impose "Hindi imperialism".

It may be noted that India has no national language and the Constitution recognizes 22 regional languages, which include Hindi.