Playing with fire: CNN draws ire of Rajinikanth loyalists

US network calls Tamil superstar Bollywood actor

Following the success of his latest film Kabali, Tamil superstar Rajinikanth has, unsurprisingly, been making headlines all around the world. The latest to jump onto the Rajinikanth bandwagon is American news network CNN, which recently decided to do a feature on the actor but ended up making a blunder that Indians (those from the south, in particular) are unlikely to forgive anytime soon.

When the network took to Twitter to share its story, entitled Rajinikanth: Meet the Superstar You May Not Have Heard About, it mistakenly referred to Rajinikanth as a “Bollywood hero” and all hell broke loose. While the south Indian icon has indeed starred in many Bollywood films, the Baasha actor reached his superstar status for his work in the Tamil film industry, often referred to as Kollywood.

Outraged, Rajinikanth fans from all over soon came to his rescue, calling out CNN for the error over social media. “It’s Kollywood and not Bollywood,” one fan Tweeted. “He (Rajnikanth) lives in a part called south India, which you guys don’t even visit.” Another sarcastically posed the question, “When did Kollywood change their name to Bollywood?” Others kept it simple with posts such as “RIP CNN” and “CNN, why are you so daft?”

But perhaps the most vehement response came from a user called Allan Carvalho, who straight out asked CNN to take its Tweet down. “Please delete your post before you have to face the wrath of south Indian people,” he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 28^th, 2016.

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