Update:I regret making this post. It attracted inflammatory comments. And, I don’t want to want to provoke anyone. Call me a coward, but I don’t want to change the world; I know it is possible but the price is too high. If you want to share your opinion write to me at suman ‘at’ sumankumar ‘dot’ com. To all those that were offended by this article: I regret it and I am striking the post off. I am stunned, shocked, and sad by the amount of hate we have amidst us.

A few days back I read in the papers that some organization dedicated to guard the Kannada language staged protests(read: barge into a movie distributor’s office and smash the property to pieces). I was stunned when I discovered yesterday that the government supported these self-proclaimed sentinel of the Kannada language, and banned releases of movies of other languages. No more new Tamil, Hindi, English (Yes, English movies too), or Telugu movies for us in Bangalore. Also, they said one can show ‘other’ movies only after 7 weeks of their release. How thoughtful!

When I enquired around I learnt that the ‘other’ movies attracted protests because ‘they’ attributed the poor performance of Kannada movies at the box-office, to the proliferation and domination of ‘other’ movies. I almost died of laughter when I heard that. Now, I am all anxious for the next blockbuster from the Kannada stable: free of competition, and possibly the audience too. What ‘they’ forgot to take into account is the VCD. VCD piracy is rampant already, now, it will only explode into an uncontrollable menace. Good luck all ye directors/producers of Kannada movies. I hope you have heard of this story about how the cat thinks that when it closes its eyes, the whole world plunges into darkness?

You know, I have a better idea. Why not make watching Kannada movies free of cost? I mean people just may start watching them when movies are offered for free… hey you know what, actually throw in some free Coke/Pepsi and some popcorn.

Update: I read in the papers yesterday (29 August) that 21 movie halls in Bangalore have decided to shut shop indefinitely. Why? ‘It is not viable.’, they said. Ouch! You know what guys, making better movies is easier.