Director Vetrimaran is one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the country. With his gripping narrative and his stellar screenplay ideologies, the director is simply unbelievable. With his latest blockbuster hits Vada Chennai and Asuran, Vetrimaran is simply out-doing himself. However, despite being such a majestic director with a down-to-Earth personality, the director faced a lot of racism when travelling to Northern India.

Vetrimaran shared a humiliating experience in the year 2011 when he was travelling back from Canada via Delhi Airport. “We were returning to India after the screening of ‘Aadukalam’ in August 2011 at the Montreal Film Festival in Canada. An immigration official at Delhi airport spoke to me in Hindi and when I said that I didn’t know Hindi, the officer questioned how come I don’t know the ‘mother language of the country’. I told him that Tamil is my mother tongue and when I want to communicate with others I use English,” he stated.

After hearing out Vetrimaaran’s explanation the Delhi airport official became very angry and said, “You people are like this…You Tamils, Kashmiris are only breaking this country.” Infact, the producer, Kathiresan and GV Prakash had stopped the official and explained that Vetrimaaran was a National-Award winning director, they were made to stand in line for more than 45 minutes.

“How can speaking my mother tongue disrupt the unity of the nation? How my mother tongue will hinder the development of the country,” questioned Vetrimaaran.

This is not the first time Hindi imposition is happening and individuals were shamed for knowing their mother tongue. This really must stop!