Controversies this week:

1. Kamal Haasan - Kannada Language Row

While promoting the June 5 release of his upcoming movie Thug Life, Tamil actor-politician Kamal Haasan ended up making a remark that 'Kannada language was born out of Tamil'. South India, especially Tamil Nadu, is known for its Dravidian-identity movements, and it was in the early 1990s that Tamil began being referred to as the ancient mother language of all South Indian languages, to assert cultural legacy. 

This was also when the Aryan migration theory gained prominence to refer to the North Indians as 'not original Indians'. The increasing visibility and prominence of Tamil was met with what is known as the 'Proto-Dravidian' concept. Since the early 2010s, India has been actively promoting the 'Proto-Dravidian' theory, which suggests that South Indian languages like Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam, all branched from a common ancestor called 'Proto-Dravidian'.

#WATCH | Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: On his recent remarks where he said, 'Kannada was born out of Tamil', MNM President and actor #KamalHaasan says, '...What I said was said out of love, and a lot of historians have taught me language history. I didn't mean anything...' pic.twitter.com/fdn3vaJzPs

— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 28, 2025

Proto-Dravidian is believed to have been spoken around 2500–1500 BCE, and spoken-Tamil with pre-historic roots has existed since at least 1500 BCE, or earlier. Despite no big timeline difference between 'Proto-Dravidian' and 'Spoken-Tamil', it is now widely countered that Kannada, Malayalam, and Telugu are independent languages that derived from 'Proto-Dravidian', and not Tamil. 

It is worth mentioning here that just like Proto-Dravidian that undermines the existence of ancient Tamil, the Aryan-migration theory (AMT) which suggests that Aryans entered India from Central Asia, is reversed with what is called Out of India theory (OIT).

OIT in recent decades is used to debunk the claim that Sanskrit is similar to European languages unlike Tamil, and that the Aryan/North Indian gene-pool is similar to the gene pool in Central Asia. OIT also undermines the migrations and battles described in Indian vedic texts, just like 'Proto-Dravidian' undermines the existence of ancient Tamil. 

2. Spirit-PR Controversy

Spirit is an upcoming Telugu movie backed by T-Series and Pranay Reddy Vanga. Deepika Padukone was in talks for the last 10 months to be starring alongside Prabhas in this movie. Triptii Dimri was recently announced as Spirit's female lead, triggering a PR-smear campaign against Deepika Padukone. 

Spirit writer, director Sandeep Reddy Vanga exposed his hand in PR attacks against Deepika, when he took to his X handle to accuse the actress of "leaking his film's plot", and "degrading Triptii Dimri", neither of which had happened, and were figments of the filmmaker's imagination. 

The PR smear campaign that accused Deepika Padukone of being "unprofessional", for "demanding" a high remuneration, a work environment conducive for a new mother, refusing to speak in Telugu in the Spirit movie, were hence proven to be made out of resent, and not authentic dissatisfactions.  

3. Unni Mukundan Vs Manager

Malayalam film actor cum producer Unni Mukundan was accused of his former manager of physical assault over sharing a positive review of a Tovino Thomas movie titled Narivetta.  According to manager Vipin Kumar, Unni Mukundan became upset when he praised Tovino Thomas' May 23 release Narivetta.

Shocking! Actor #UnniMukundan allegedly assaulted his manager @vvipink for sharing a positive review of Tovino Thomas’s #Narivetta online.

PR consultant Vipin has now filed a police complaint against Unni!

pic.twitter.com/apFvTGNOhP

— MovieCrow (@MovieCrow) May 27, 2025

Vipin Kumar also filed a police complaint against Unni Mukundan. On May 27, 2025 Unni Mukundan denied all claims of a physical assault in a lengthy Facebook note.

Adding to the controversy, Unni Mukundan has now shared a screenshot of a WhatsApp chat with Tovino Thomas on Instagram, indicating that all's well between the two Mollywood actors. 

4. Kannappa's missing hard-disk

Kannaappa is an upcoming Telugu multi-starrer which is lead by Vishnu Manchu, and co-stars Prabhas, Mohanlal, Akshay Kumar among others. On May 27, 2025, 24 Frames Studio released an official statement that claimed that a hard drive with crucial Kannappa footage, including 90 minutes of action sequences and VFX, was stolen during transit from Hive Studios, Mumbai, to 24 Frames Factory.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM 24 FRAMES FACTORY
REGARDING THE THEFT OF CRUCIAL KANNAPPA FOOTAGE

In response to circulating rumours and speculation, 24 Frames Factory is issuing this official statement to bring clarity to the situation.

A hard drive containing a pivotal action…

— 24 Frames Factory (@24FramesFactory) May 27, 2025

Two individuals, Raghu and Charita, not linked to the production, intercepted the Kannappa movie hard-disk and are now missing. A police complaint was filed weeks ago, and the case is now with Cyber Crime authorities due to fears of online leaks. Kannappa producers claim this hard-disk theft as an attempt to sabotage the film's June 27, 2025 release.