Superstar Rajinikanth defended his daughter and Lal Salaam director Aishwarya Rajinikanth who spoke about people branding the actor as “Sanghi”. Responding to the queries from the media on his daughter’s statement, the superstar said, “Aishwarya never said the term Sanghi was a bad word.” The actor's clarification comes two days after Aishwarya expressed displeasure over the actor being labelled “Sanghi”—a term that is used to refer right-wingers in India—on social media.
“Sanghi is not a bad word. Aishwarya did not mean it. She questioned only why her father is being branded as Sanghi for being spiritual,” Rajinikanth clarified.
While speaking at the audio launch of Lal Salaam Aishwarya mocked the trolls and expressed displeasure over her father being called a "Sanghi". She said she feels pained whenever people call him “Sanghi” only because he is vocal about his spiritual beliefs. “I was told that it is a term used to call people who support a particular political party. Let me put it clearly. Rajinikanth is not a Sanghi,” she said during the audio launch.
She said if he had been a Sanghi he would not have agreed to be featured in Lal Salaam which talks about secularism. Rajinikanth has a cameo in Lal Salaam—he plays Moideen Bhai who interferes to restore peace as religious unrest between Hindus and Muslims turns a cricket ground into a battlefield. The trailer of Lal Salaam, released a few weeks ago gives glimpses of the story of the tiff between two communities in a village. With Vikrant and Vishnu Vishal in the lead, Lal Salaam will hit the screens on February 9.
It may be recalled that Rajinikanth, who chose to stay away from politics, once said he is for spiritual politics. In fact, RSS ideologue Gurumurthy in a recent event revealed that the Tamil Nadu BJP president K. Annamalai was Rajinikanth’s choice. Incidentally, Rajinikanth’s off-screen statements including “anti-social elements got into the protest” during the Thoothukudi police firing against the Sterlite protests have always made the actor face social media trolls in Tamil Nadu.
Recently, the superstar visited Ayodhya during the opening of the Ram Mandir on an invitation from the central government. He was accompanied by his wife Latha and son-in-law Dhanush.
