Kamal Haasan onboard US ship when earthquake struck Indonesia

 

MUMBAI: On Wednesday, when a devastating earthquake struck Indonesia and there was an urgent Tsunami warning in the coastal districts of Southern India, Kamal Haasan was mid-ocean onboard the super-luxurious American navy ship the USS Carl Vinson as a guest of the American government. Kamal Haasan is the first Indian actor to be invited on board an American ship as a special friend of the US.

“And what timing!” chuckles Kamal Haasan. “There I was on the American carrier in the Bay Of Bengal, 200 miles off the coast of Chennai, completely oblivious to the earthquake and the Tsunami warning.” Apparently Kamal Haasan’s American hosts made sure that the Tsunami warnings didn’t reach his ears.

“I believe they kept getting intermittent warnings, but the ship’s Admiral and the rest of the staff made sure I was focused on the visit rather than get into alarming digressions. I only got to know about the earthquake and the Tsunami warnings after I was flown from the ship to shore in Chennai.”

Though the actor is not talking about it, his progressively close ties with the US have a lot to do with his latest film ‘Vishwaroop’ which addresses itself to global peace and intelligence. Kamal Haasan shot a major part of the film in the US and has also done the film’s special-effects in the US. Says the actor, “I haven’t gone out of my way to build a rapport with the US. I call a spade a spade. I don’t flatter the American ego. They often make appalling  films like The Hunger Games, and then talk about championing aesthetic causes. Do they realize the impression such appalling films make on impressionable minds? In any part of the world there is one true religion, and that’s success.” Somewhere Kamal Haasan must be making the right noises for the American government to have warmed up to him to the extent of inviting him on one America’s most prestigious ships to have a meal.