Bengaluru: Actor Prakash Raj was at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi Saturday to lend support to Cockroach Janata Party’s protest seeking the resignation of Union Education Minister Dhamendra Pradhan over repeated incidents of exam paper leaks.
“They say it’s social media (driven movement). Arre bhai, you also came through WhatsApp university social media only. You had a weapon that we didn’t have. That weapon is with us now,” he said, taking an apparent dig at the BJP. This drew cheers from the small gathering of youngsters at the protest site.
For the 61-year-old actor, who played prominent roles in Bollywood hits such as Ajay Devgan-starrer Singham and Salman Khan’s Wanted and Dabbang-2, addressing the small crowd at Jantar Mantar was an indication of what his activism has cost him.
Virtually banished from Bollywood following his no-holds-barred attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the actor has been joining all kinds of causes such as the Dharmasthala controversy in Karnataka.
His political career has failed to take off, though. He contested the Bangalore Central Lok Sabha seat in the 2019 election as an Independent, and finished third with just around 30,000 votes.
“Everybody is talking about the price I am paying but you should talk about what I am getting from it. There is a meaning in life, isn’t that more important?” Raj told ThePrint Monday.
The actor has mentioned in the past how his stand against Hindutva, communal politics and unveiled attacks on the BJP has cost him acting roles across industry, especially Bollywood.
The Ambedkar, Che Guvera reference
“Let it take time. I do acting, Cinema, Theatre. I spend time. I read. This is my time, and it is making my life more meaningful. This is not something about what time and where to use it. It is quality time. Shouldn’t you do this as a citizen? Did we ask this of (BR) Ambedkar, Che Guvera…did we ask them… everybody has duties as citizens,” he said.
Raj is largely identified by the roles he has essayed in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu film industries. He also has several performances in Bollywood, including as the main antagonist in movies like Singham, Wanted and Dabbang-2, among others.
He switched gears soon after the September 2017 cold-blooded murder of his friend Gauri Lankesh. In October that year, Raj hit out at PM Modi for his silence over Gauri’s murder, the fourth in an alleged pattern of what the critics of the government have claimed was radical Hindutva groups targeting rationalists over perceived insults to the Hindu religion.
“We may not be able to see Gauri’s killers but we can see those who have spewed vitriol. People who our Prime Minister follows are also among them. We have a Prime Minister who shuts his eyes to this,” Raj had said at the time.
He has only intensified his attacks on the BJP, often using Litfests, media conclaves and other platforms to target the Modi-led government at the centre. He uses the #JustAsking on his X (formerly Twitter) to air his views.
He even belts out popular film dialogues at protests that are received with rapturous response. Before the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections, Raj travelled across the state criticising Modi.
He would often say there was nothing political about his travels. He would even stopover at wedding halls en route, wishing the couple and spending some time with their families, entertaining crowds and readily obliging to selfie requests.
In May 2019, he told ThePrint that Bollywood hadn’t offered him a role since October 2017 when he began speaking out against Modi. “There is no problem (with the film industry) in the South, but there has been no offer from the Hindi film industry since I began speaking out,” Raj had said.
He has also released a book, ‘Dosita Chinukulu’ in Telugu with translations in Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil. The book is a compilation of his commentary on society, politics and his life.
Speaking to ThePrint Monday, he said that the film industry in this country was “more opportunism than ideological alignments”, terming the world of cinema as a “vulnerable industry”.
“The regime will see where you are vulnerable and I understand that vulnerability, and I knew I had to pay the price and I am ok,” he said.
But he says there are more important things he works toward. “Everybody has their own reasons. In this country, we should live with differences, no? It is ok, I am more liberated, at least people know who I am. I am just known for the role I am doing,” he said.
“When I walk around, youngsters, elders, and some citizens come up to me and say thank you for standing up. They say, we love you as an actor but we love you more now for what you are doing. That’s so important, that is the strength. It is fine,” he said.
His name featured among people who allegedly targeted Dharmasthala’s patron and Rajya Sabha member Veerendra Heggade. Chinniah, the former sanitation worker at the temple, had named Raj as one of the people who were allegedly behind the alleged Rs 200-crore funding to go after Dharmasthala’s Heggade’s in the mass burial controversy.
Raj had denied any such links, terming the allegations “exaggerated and fabricated stories” being circulated by malicious individuals.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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