Kamal Hassan: I’m a fan of Puttanna Kanagal and Girish Karnad and used to travel to Bengaluru often to the Suchitra Film Society

Veteran actor Kamal Haasan was in Bengaluru earlier this week to promote his release this week, Vikram, which, incidentally, is not getting a Kannada version outing. During the course of the event, when Kamal was asked about one memory of Bengaluru that he cherishes, the Ulaganayagan said that it’s not one, but many memories.

“There are so many memories of Bengaluru. As a film student, I used to come to Bengaluru, because there was a group of good people who had Suchitra Film Society. When Puttanna Kanagal garu made a film, (Tamil filmmaker) K Balachander would take a car and travel to Bengaluru to see it first-day-first show and I used to come along with him. I am also a great fan of the late Girish Karnad. When he was living among us, we did not realize what a great person he was. Many writers are my friends, like BV Karanth; I used to come here just to meet them and know more about cinema. I have so many memories. When I came as a small actor, I was doing Pathinaru Vayathinile in Kollegal, and I was doing Kokila in Kannada in Bengaluru. I used to stay in a hotel called Parag. I used to remember the old city where I used to jog every day. Now, I can’t recognize it anymore. If you leave me somewhere near Kempegowda Circe now, I would be completely lost. So many things have changed in my Bengaluru. Today, the person who was driving me to the hotel said that every time he drives past the bridge near Windsor Manor, he thinks of me. Your landmark and I have a connection,” he said.

The actor also reminisced about a great man, who would call him home when he was only 21 years old and praise his acting. “I learnt how to respect other people from him. He would say, “Baala chandavagi act maadthididiya. That was Dr Rajkumar avaru. He inaugurated my first production Rajaparvai. He came to the set of Pushpak, when I was shooting in Bengaluru and patted me on the shoulder. I have so much love from my artistic friends and Karnataka has given me so many gurus – Nagesh is from Karnataka, but we are not going to give him back to you. There are so many gifts I have got from here,” he added.