Former general secretary of the Samajwadi Party Amar Singh, who was expelled from the party after he fell out with the SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav, would star in a Malayalam movie ‘Bombay Mittai’, with actor Dimple Kapadia as his wife.
Neelambari Perumal, daughter of exiled Sri Lankan Tamil leader Varadaraja Perumal too is starring in the movie. Mr Singh portrays a musician, with many comedy actors and others from Molywood as co-actors. “But this is not a comical movie, since I am murdered in it,” he said, while addressing a media conference here on Saturday. Mr Singh would not charge any fee for acting in the movie.
“During my youth, I would not miss out on any movie in which Dimple starred, so much so that more than attend law lectures, I used to go and see her movies, especially the blockbuster ‘Bobby’.”
Mumbai Mittai, which is produced by journalists would be dubbed into Hindi as well. Mr Singh spoke of how he is putting to good use his minimal knowledge of Sanskrit, to utter the otherwise-tough Malayalam words.
On his aspirations as an actor, Mr Singh said, “I have my limitations in the field and cannot be like Amitabh Bachan or Shah Rukh Khan. I do not have any such wild fantasy either.”
On politics
He spoke of how he was expelled from the SP for striving to spread the knowledge of English and computers among the rural populace. He also attempted to promote tractors and other machinery in agriculture, which many people did not like.
“These are the people who send their children to Britain and Australia for higher studies, while denying even basic knowledge of English and computers to rural folk in India. Unlike in southern India, States up north have a clear divide between urban and rural people. While youth from urban areas become IAS and IPS officers, the ones from rural areas become their attenders. I wanted to change this and ended up being at logger heads with Mr Mulayam Singh. His party is afraid of modernity,” Mr Singh said.
He reminded that even the Chinese, the South Koreans and the French have begun to learn English, considering its importance in the current world. “I am not against Mr Mulayam, but against his attitude. I feel that one should uphold self esteem and not tolerate humiliation.”
He spoke of how both Mr Mulayam and the UP Chief Minister Mayavathi have invested the State’s resources in their areas of dominance, leaving areas like eastern UP without food and water. There are numerous instances of people selling off their daughters, to ward off poverty.
Answering a question on the opposition from some quarters in Kerala to make his close friend and actor Amitabh Bachan as the brand ambassador of Kerala Tourism, he said that things should be viewed in the right perspective. “His becoming Gujarat’s brand ambassador does not mean that he has endorsed the State’s CM Narendra Modi or the 2002 massacre of Muslims there.”
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