Kichcha Sudeep,
the Kannada actor whose comment on India’s national language forced him into a
Twitter war with Hindi film actor Ajay Devgn, was thankful of Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s remarks on the subject on Friday. Addressing the controversy,
PM Modi said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) sees a reflection of Indian
culture in every Indian language worthy of reverence.

Sudeep, speaking
to NDTV during an interview, said, “I didn’t mean to start any riot or any kind
of debate. It just so happened without an agenda. It was an opinion I voiced. It
was an honour and a privilege to see the certain lines comes out of the Prime
Minister’s mouth.”

Prime Minister
Narendra Modi said Friday, “Giving priority to local languages in the National
Educational Policy manifests our commitment to all regional languages. The BJP
considers Indian languages to be the soul of Bharatiyata and the link to a
better future for the country.”

“I want to mention
this especially because attempts have been made in the recent past to create
new controversies based on language. We have to constantly alert the people of
the country about this,” Modi said.

Sudeep, talking
about the prime minister’s comments, said, “It is a warm welcome towards all
languages. I am not just representing only Kannada. I’m talking about…everybody’s
mother tongue has been respected today with those few statements from the prime
minister and that is where I was coming from that day. We don’t look at
Narendra Modi as just a politician, we look at him as a leader as well.”

The Kichcha
Sudeep-Ajay Devgn controversy was stirred after Sudeep, speaking on “KGF:
Chapter 2,” which has done very well in North India, 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.”

Ajay Devgn,
responding to Kichcha Sudeep’s comment, wrote in Hindi, that if Hindi is not
our national language, why are Kannada films dubbed in Hindi. He went on to
say, Hindi is our mother tongue and national language, is, and will continue to
be. Sudeep responded to Devgn saying his intention wasn’t to hurt or to start a
debate.