We already reported to you that Oscar-winning Tamil music composer AR Rahman stated to the media, "Tamil is the connecting language," while Amit Shah, the Minister of Home Affairs, has recently said that Hindi should be the connecting language of the nation instead of English.

Now, a video of AR Rahman talking about colour representation in south Indian cinema on stage has gone viral on the internet. The Southern Regional Division of the Confederation of Indian Industry organised the Dakshin - South Indian Media and Entertainment Summit in Chennai and yesterday was the last day of the event.

Isai Puyal ARR was present at the conference along with several politicians, celebrities and cine industry people. While addressing the crowd, Rahman said, "When I was in Malaysia 7 years back, a Chinese man came to me and said, 'You're an Indian right? I like India very much. I like North India better because they are fair (white). Their movies are much more charming'."

"So, I was thinking whether he had watched any south Indian movies or why he would think like that. It deeply disturbed me. Then, I discovered, I think what we need to do, In my humble opinion, is to cast people with our colour. Make the roles of dark-skinned people more empowering. And give them characters that have more dignity. We can have dark-sinned newsreaders. And, this is the most important thing that the south Indians can do. We love our colour. We need to represent them in the most glorious and dignified way," Oscar Naayagan continued.

The Mozart of Madras also added, "To me, there is no north India and south India. India is India. It doesn't matter. When somebody does good here, the north gets benefits and when somebody does good there, we benefit too. Borders are broken. We look at Netflix and other OTT, I think people watch Malayalam movies, Tamil movies and films in every Indian language. But we need to empower ourselves and it is much easier throughout. We need to show the world what minds we are, and what culture we have in the most international way. We should be proud of our Indian movies even if we watch them in Alaska. It's very easy to divide people through art but this is the time to unite."

#CINEMAUPDATE | "கருப்பாக இருப்பவர்களுக்கு சிறந்த கதாப்பாத்திரங்களைக் கொடுங்கள். நம் எல்லோருக்கும் நம் நிறம்தான் பிடிக்கும்!" - ஏ.ஆர்.ரஹ்மான்#SunNews | #ARRahman | #SouthIndianMovies | #Cinema | @arrahman pic.twitter.com/x1JPg01mGg

— Sun News (@sunnewstamil) April 11, 2022

"இந்தியாவில் எங்கிருந்தாலும் இந்தியாதான். இதில் வட இந்தியா தென்னிந்தியா என்று இல்லை" - ஏ.ஆர்.ரஹ்மான்#SunNews | #ARRahman | #SouthIndianMovies | #Cinema | @arrahman pic.twitter.com/qIqmDCQ4eq

— Sun News (@sunnewstamil) April 11, 2022