Bengaluru (PTI): Actor Kamal Haasan has not yet issued an apology for his controversial remarks on Kannada language, observed the Karnataka High Court on Friday and directed the producer of his latest film 'Thug Life' to respond to an application filed by Kannada Sahitya Parishat.

The application sought intervention in the producer's pleas against the ban on the film's release in the state.

The Parishat wanted to place before the Court, the constitutional, cultural and linguistic concerns arising from the statements made by Haasan, particularly from the perspective of protecting the identity, dignity and historical legacy of the Kannada language and culture.

The case stems from a statement made by Haasan during the audio release of the film, where he had said that Kannada was born out of Tamil Language.

The remark led to a huge controversy and Karnataka leaders and the Film Chamber of the state demanded that the actor withdraw his statement and tender an apology. However, he declined to apologise and opted against releasing the movie in Karnataka on June 5, when it was released worldwide.

On Friday, the counsel for production house Raaj Kamal Films International submitted that the actor would need a week's time to file objections to the Kannada Sahitya Parishat's impleadment application.

Justice M Nagaprasanna, who heard the case, posted the matter to June 20.

Earlier, Raaj Kamal Films International filed a petition seeking adequate security for the movie's release in the state.

When the matter came up for hearing before Justice Nagaprasanna on June 3, counsel for the petitioner maintained that there was no malice and an apology was not warranted and submitted that the screening of the movie would not be insisted upon in the state till the issue gets resolved through dialogue.

During the hearing, Haasan came in for strong criticism from the court for his remark, and the court observed that a "single apology could have resolved the situation".

 

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Batumi (Georgia), Jul 26 (PTI): Young Indian International Master Divya Deshmukh held her nerves to hold stalwart Koneru Humpy to a draw in game 1 of the FIDE Women's World Cup final, with both players having their share of opportunities to take the lead here on Saturday.

The draw with black means Humpy, the two-time World Rapid champion, holds a slight edge going in the second and final game under the classical chess rules in the two-game mini-match, and should the deadlock continue, games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.

Humpy employed the Queen's gambit accepted as black and it turned out to be a pretty fascinating game right out of the opening as Divya, 19, came up with a piece sacrifice early to deny the black king the right to castle.

Humpy was the first to err and, according to computers, Divya had things under control on the 14th move. However in her bid to recover the extra material, the Nagpur girl, who has secured a place in the Candidates tournament with her sterling performance here, missed a promising continuation.

What followed the exchange of all minor pieces and the ensuing queen and rook endgame gave enough counter play to both players. The game was eventually drawn after Humpy sacrificed her rook to force perpetual checks.

"The game saw an extremely sharp battle with the game ending in a draw in 41 moves. On move 7, Divya made her aggressive intentions clear by offering another pawn,

which looked like home preparation. Humpy made a practical decision of refraining from taking the pawn and a balanced position was reached by move 10 by white," said Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, an Arjuna awardee and the first Indian to get a chess Grandmaster norm.

"However, instead of developing the undeveloped Knight, Humpy retreated the centralised Knight on move 10, giving huge positional advantage to Divya. Divya could have gained huge positional advantage on the 12th move by moving a rook. However, she chose to play for King side attack by sacrificing a piece instead.

"Humpy, too, erred at this stage and instead of moving the King to Queen side, moved it to the King side. Divya, on move 14, could have obtained a crushing attack by threatening a mate by developing her Queen. Instead she chose to exchange a pair of Bishops first, which enabled Humpy to defend her King by returning the piece," said Thipsay.

"Players thus reached a balanced Queen and two Rooks ending. Divya continued to play ambitiously and tried to attack Humpy’s King but the latter defended accurately and the game was drawn in 41 moves by perpetual check," he added.

In the play-off for the third place, Chinese players Zhongyi Tan, the former women's world champion and top seed Lei Tingjie also decided to split points out of a Queen’s gambit declined game.

The opening raised visions of a close contest between the two but having been knocked out of title race in the previous round, none of them wanted to take any huge risk. It was still a middle game when the players shook hands.

With the top two positions sealed for the Indians, the berth to the next Candidates is also assigned, while the player finishing third will also get an entry to the premier event scheduled for 2026.

Results: Divya Deshmukh (Ind) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind); Zhongyi Tan (Chn) drew with Tingjie Lei (Chn).