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Friday 21 Friday, August 10, 2018 Lifestyle | Features ndian movie star Kamal Haasan, safeguard the diversity and multi-reli- whose latest film releases today, en- gious quality of the nation”. Ijoys causing a stir as an actor and “My decision (to get into politics) now he is looking to shake up Indian was accelerated by what is going on in politics as well. Haasan is one of the the country but especially in my state,” Photo shows a view biggest names in Indian cinema and has the actor said during the interview in of the old bridge appeared in more than 200 films since Mumbai. “I wanted to challenge the sta- over the Sazava river making his debut aged six over half a tus quo. And I am not inventing this in the Czech village century ago. The 63-year-old, who has decorum of centrism. We had it, and I of Davle, located endured battles with censorship, re- want to regain it.” Haasan, who also pro- 25km far from the cently formed his own political party and duces, directs and sings in many of his capital Prague. plans to fight for artistic freedoms that movies has appeared in films across sev- — AFP photos he says are being curbed. “It’s happening eral Indian languages-Tamil, Telugu, all around the country and should be Malayalam and Hindi-making him a truly challenged. Every artist should assert his nationwide star. He has picked up a or her right to speak,” Haasan, from the number of awards throughout a glitter- Soviet army nearly ‘battled’ US southern state of Tamil Nadu, told AFP ing career including the Padma Bhushan, in an interview. India’s third-highest civilian honour, and filmmakers in Prague Spring was made a Chevalier of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Some of his most ropaganda-fuelled Soviet soldiers were ready to take notable movies include “Vikram”, “Ma- on American and German armies during the 1968 in- hanadi” (The Great River), and vasion of former Czechoslovakia-before they realized “Nayakan” (The Hero). P the “enemies” were filmmakers. “I remember the noise made by a tank unit on August 21, 1968,” said Kvetoslava Dufkova, Controversies a pensioner from the small town of Davle just south of His latest movie, the action spy thriller “Vishwaroop 2” (titled “Vishwa- Prague, who was 14 at the time. “The Soviets then arrived in roopam 2” in Tamil and meaning “The the centre of Davle and there they came across, to their big Magnificent Incarnation 2”), hits surprise, an army they thought was German,” she told AFP. screens across India on Friday. It is the Like many locals, Dufkova had been acting as an extra in sequel to 2013’s “Vishwaroopam”, “The Bridge at Remagen”, a John Guillermin war film starring which was controversially banned by George Segal and Robert Vaughn that was shot in Davle. the Tamil Nadu government despite “The guys in the tanks were stunned to suddenly see ‘a Ger- being cleared for release by India’s cen- man army’ in front of them. They began negotiations, which In this photograph Indian Bollywood sor board. The administration of the late lasted several hours,” Dufkova said of the alarming moment A photo shows a view of the old bridge over the Sazava film actor, director, screenwriter, and J. Jayalalithaa, herself a former promi- that took place 50 years ago. After some time, the invading river in the Czech village of Davle. producer Kamal Haasan speaks during nent actor, blocked the movie’s release troops understood they were facing actors and not the ex- an interview with AFP for the promotion on law and order grounds after Muslim pected imperialist cutthroats. die, but rescuers managed to save the animal. It was a very of his upcoming Hindi and Tamil film groups claimed it could disturb com- moving moment.” There were 800 extras, including several ‘Vishwaroopam 2’ in Mumbai. — AFP munal harmony. Last bridge across Rhine schoolchildren dressed as Hitler Youth, according to a hand- Only after the Chennai-based Haasan From March 1968, the town of Davle was turned into a written village account kept at town hall. “The stage set was The multiple award-winning screen threatened to leave the state and agreed movie set, with residents mingling with Hollywood stars in so credible that an accidental tourist would have made the icon is the latest in a long line of Indian to mute five scenes was the film released, American and Nazi military uniforms while tanks and other sign of a cross here,” the chronicle says. actors hoping to transform their popu- two weeks late. It cost the actor, who army vehicles drove by. Davle was also surrounded by larity at the box office into votes at the also wrote and directed the movie, replica buildings imitating those in Remagen, a town in west- ‘Soviet arrival was horrible’ ballot box. Haasan launched Makkal around 600 million rupees ($8.74 million ern Germany. “Near our house there was a pile of dead sol- But this credibility almost led to a tragedy in the town on Needhi Maiam in February, a political based on today’s exchange rate). Haasan dier mannequins that the filmmakers would distribute here the day the Soviet-led armies invaded Czechoslovakia. So- party based in Tamil Nadu that trans- has been no stranger to controversy and there during filming,” said Antonin Dvorak, a 78-year- viet troops crushed the Prague Spring movement, killing 50 lates to “People’s Justice Centre” in the throughout his acting career. “Hey Ram” old pensioner from Davle. people nationwide on the first day alone. “The arrival of the local language. caused an outcry in 2000 for suppos- The film tells the story of how the US army took hold of Soviet army in Davle was horrible. A helicopter was circling It will contest polls for the first time edly depicting Mahatma Gandhi in a in India’s next general election, likely to poor light while 1992’s “Thevar Magan” the last bridge still standing across the Rhine in March 1945, overhead and the soldiers were terribly scared. This could be held in spring 2019 when Prime Min- (Son of Thevar) was accused of portray- following the German army’s failure to destroy it while wait- have resulted in a tragedy,” said Dvorak. “Someone told ister Narendra Modi will seek a second ing an Indian community as violent. ing for the retreating Nazi troops to cross the river. United them that Davle had been invaded by the US army and that term. Critics have accused Modi’s right- His venture into politics came after Artists producers took advantage of a political thaw in what they should liberate us. They had no idea why our people wing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata another Indian cinema icon, Rajinikanth, was then communist Czechoslovakia to go on location there. were giving them the finger. They were terribly nervous, the Party-led government of fuelling intoler- also floated the idea of forming his own And the 1968 Prague Spring movement opened the country tension was palpable.” ance and giving a platform to anti-Mus- party. Both are looking to follow in the up to the West. Producers picked Davle because of the re- The shooting of “The Bridge at Remagen” was immedi- lim sentiment. Haasan, whose films have footsteps of Jayalalithaa and her mentor semblance of a local bridge to the one at Remagen, as well ately interrupted and the whole film crew rushed back to- had a political hue since the 1980s, said M.G. Ramachandran, who was also a fa- as the presence of skilled film staff, including stunt perform- wards the West by taxi, leaving behind all the Sherman and his party’s priorities will be to “defend mous actor before becoming Tamil Nadu ers and prop men. “During the shooting of a scene in which Tiger tanks and other material. In the autumn of 1968, the freedom of speech, and maintain and chief minister. — AFP the bridge is bombed, a horse fell through the railings into film crew were allowed to come back briefly to take a few the river,” recalled Dufkova. “We all thought the horse would necessary shots. — AFP rammy-award winning singer Al- of a world tour that started in Paris in 2016. of Cuban music and the truth is that it’s a in Cuba .... But I believe a lot in Cuban cul- bita Rodriguez is such a celebrated “It is very touching and very exciting and wonderful job, she said. Carmen is just the ture, since I was a child .... I believe in Ginterpreter of Cuban music that I also feel a great responsibility, I some- latest act in a distinguished career. Ro- music and I have invested in it because I when a new version of the opera Carmen what carry the story. I am telling the story driguez, known as Albita, was born in Ha- feel proud of my culture and of my coun- was produced set in revolutionary Havana and recreating it,” she told Reuters about vana in 1962 to parents who were popular try,” she said. Since then, she has per- a role was created especially for her. Albita her part. Cuban folk singers. She gained fame in formed around the world, befriended stars plays Senora in Carmen La Cubana, a pro- “There is mambo, chachacha, guajira, Cuba but her career exploded when she such as Madonna and Gianni Versace, and duction of Georges Bizet’s 19th century danzon, Afro-Cuban santer’a music. It (the arrived in Miami in 1993.