Published in Times Of India daily paper Feb 09, 2010
At a stage that had who of the Tamil film fraternity honouring Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, actor Ajith gave a heroic speech stating that actors only want to act and are not interested in taking a stand on issues.The words immediately got appreciation from none other than Superstar Rajinikanth, who stood up and put his hands together! While a certain section of the audience felt that this wasn’t the right forum to put forward such ideas, most of them — including many young stars (who have posted their views on the Internet, congratulating Ajith’s speech) —felt that there couldn’t have been a better forum as the who’s who of the filmiand political fraternity were present on the same dais.
When CT contacted Ajith about his hard-hitting speech, this is all he had to say. My role model is A R Rahman, who is a true Tamilian. He has worked against all odds and struggled hard in life to get to where he is now. He made people forget their worries by providing them with superb music, which fetched him awards at the global level. And, when he got the opportunity to stand in front of a global audience, he spoke in Tamil to tell the world that he was from Tamil Nadu in India.”