'North stars are insecure, jealous': Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma on Hindi language row

In a tweet, Varma, who directed films like Company and Sarkar among others, wrote: "The base undeniable ground truth @KicchaSudeep sir,is that the north stars are insecure and jealous of the south stars because a Kannada dubbing film KGF2 had a 50 crore opening day and we all are going to see the coming opening days of Hindi films."

The controversial director also backed Kannada actor Sudeep Sanjeev for his remark that Hindi is not the national language.

"Whether u intended or not am glad u made this statement ,because unless there's a strong stir , there cannot be a calm especially at a time when there seems to be a war like situation between Bolly(north)wood and Sandal(South) wood," he wrote in another tweet.

Hindi was, is, and will always be our mother tongue and national language, Bollywood actor Ajay Devgn said on Wednesday in response to the Kannada actor who pointed out at a recent event that Hindi is not the national language.

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.

However, his comment has been met with flak by several Karnataka politicians too.

Former Karnataka Chief Ministers Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy have slammed Devgn for calling Hindi a "national language" and also called him calling him a BJP mouthpiece.