Arjun Rampal has been busy promoting his film Dhaakad along with co-star Kangana Ranaut. He went on to share his thoughts on the national language debate in a recent interview. He weighed in on the Ajay Devgn-Kiccha Sudeep Twitter row regarding Hindi being our national language or not.
In an interview with India Today, he shared his thoughts, stating, “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.”
He also went on to talk about the diversity of Indian culture and languages, “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.”
Kangana Ranaut and Arjun Rampal’s Dhaakad is set to hit the theatres on 20 May.
(At The Quint, we question everything. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member today.)