KAMAL HASSAN, MOHANLAL IN 'A WEDNESDAY'

" I am not a competent person to indulge in politics" said Kamal Hassan to a group of journalists and added " Karunanidhi, MGR and Jayalalithaa were joined in politics after they had a training and experience in their political areana".

Kamal Hassan is all set to play Naseeruddin Shah's role in 'A Wednesday' which will be remade in Tamil and Telugu.

Malayalam superstar Mohanlal will enact Anupam Kher's character in the bilingual film.

Both the versions will be produced by Kamal himself and would be directed by Chakri, a US-based filmmaker and a good friend of the actor.

The actor was at the FICCI Frames convention to speak on 'Focus South'. He said he and Mohanlal wanted to work with each other for a long time.

Kamal said there was nothing wrong in remaking a good idea.

"I had remade Govind Nihalani's 'Drohakaal' in Tamil a few years ago," he said adding the film will go on floors very soon.

Kamal said he had liked 'A Wednesday' very much. "A friend of mine who watched the film told me that I suited Naseer's role very much and should have done the film. So I decided to remake it," he said.

When asked what preparations he would make to perform the role, Kamal said Naseer has already done my homework. I have now only to perform.

Kamal, who completes 50 years in the film industry next year, said he is a reluctant actor. "I always wanted to become a technician. But, filmmakers like K Balchander persuaded me saying that I will not make much money. Now, I feel star Kamal is the financier of technician Kamal," he said.


He admitted that lack of communication among different language film industries in the country was a tragedy. He said finding parochial cracks and driving wedge within different sections of the industry is a bad trend. "Chennai or Mumbai is just an address, I am an Indian actor-filmmaker, he said.

Kamal also lamented that the name Bollywood was here to stay. He said words such as Kollywood for the Chennai film industry was disgusting.

Kamal said he shrugs off complacency within him by constantly practicing introspection. "When I am told I am larger than life, I know I am 5.8 and a half," he said.

When asked about the dominance of Hindi cinema over regional films, Kamal said audience like to watch films in their own language and it was the reason why regional cinema was thriving. "We are a diverse country and everybody has a level playing field," he said.

Speaking about the Southern film industry, Kamal said the producers council of southern states had passed a resolution prohibiting corporates from entering film production in south India. "The corporates were even dissuaded from becoming the council members," he said.

Many thought that this was a very parochial attitude but the south industry is in good health in times of global recession and even the critics of the council's decision have admitted that it was a good decision," he said.

Microeconomics have set behavioural patterns and should not be seen in such a context, he said. Kamal also felt vested interests were delaying technology. We have to accept progress and be part of the change. There is no use of blaming opportunities for our failures. Business improves with content. Platforms of exhibition needs to be increased, he said.