Hindi can't be imposed on others, says Adoor Gopalakrishnan

MUMBAI: National-award-winning filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan says Hindi is a beautiful language, but it should be counted as a regional language and should not be imposed on others.

Gopalakrishnan, 74, played a major role in revolutionising Malayalam cinema and is regarded as one of the finest filmmakers of India.

"Hindi is a very beautiful language. There are very fine writers in Hindi, no doubt about that, but you cannot impose Hindi over and above others... not only administratively but even otherwise," he told PTI.

Adoor feels as India is made up of various cultures and traditions, an "exclusive" attitude will not work.

"Hindi was by official imposition only. Because officially they want to have one language kind of attitude from everybody... that's a very exclusive kind of attitude. India is a country of several different cultures, languages, styles of living.

"Naturally, you have to allow and understand that. It's all together only that India is made up of," he said, on the sidelines of the second edition of Gateway LitFest here.

Adoor says that for a language to be classified as national, it should be spoken by the entire country.

"It is wrong when you think Hindi is a national language and other languages are regional. All the languages are regional, it becomes national only when everybody in the country speaks a particular language, but that doesn't happen," he said.

The filmmaker pioneered the new wave cinema movement in Kerala with his first film "Swayamvaram" in 1972. He last made "Oru Pennum Randaanum" (A Climate of Crime) in 2008 and won Kerala state award for best director.

Adoor feels Hindi should be counted as a regional language, as people in many parts of the country do not speak it.

"In the North-East, in South, they don't speak Hindi. So, you cannot call it national language. These are languages used for inter-community dialogues, not more than that. Hindi is reaching more people because most of the North is speaking Hindi. It should be treated as regional language only," he said.