Chennai, Aug. 30: A French award has spawned a Kerala connection for Kamal Haasan.

The Tamil film superstar has described Pinarayi Vijayan as "my state's CM", responding to the Kerala chief minister's compliments for his latest achievement at a time Jayalalithaa has snubbed him with an icy silence.

It's more than two weeks since Paris conferred Kamal with the Chevalier de L'Ordre Arts et Lettres, a category of France's highest civilian honour - the Légion d'Honneur - that it had also awarded to Satyajit Ray and Shivaji Ganesan.

While film personalities and political leaders in Tamil Nadu have been quick to congratulate Kamal, there's been not a word from Amma yet.

Vijayan, however, wrote to Kamal saying: "You have been chosen for the prestigious Chevalier Award for placing Indian cinema on the top of world films through your multi-faceted personality."

Kamal, 61, wrote back thanking Vijayan and virtually identifying Kerala as "the state I belong to".

"Thank you very much for your kind words on my Chevalier award," the actor wrote. "Someone remarked, 'How nice of another state's head to lavish you with praise'. I interjected, 'He is not another state's CM. He is my state's CM. Ask any film-going Malayalee which state I belong to'."

Kamal, who speaks fluent Malayalam, has played the lead in more than 30 Malyalam films one of which, Kanyakumari (1974), brought him his first Filmfare award. It was Kamal's first film as a hero, having till then acted only in supporting roles or as a child artiste in Tamil films.

Jayalalithaa's relations with Kamal have been frosty since the actor threatened to leave Tamil Nadu in 2013 when the release of his film, Vishwaroopam, was stopped in the state following protests from Muslim groups.

Jayalalithaa had then said the producer needed to honour the sentiments of the minority community and make the necessary alterations. She had ruled out police protection for theatres that decided to screen the film.

Although the film's release in Tamil Nadu got delayed by a week, the controversy helped it at the box office.

After the Chennai deluge last December, Jayalalithaa's finance minister O. Panneerselvam had attacked Kamal for questioning the authorities' failure to prevent the flooding.

"As a taxpayer it hurts me most when the government of the day is not to be seen," Kamal had written to a film critic in a letter that became public.

Kamal was not invited to Jayalalithaa's swearing-in ceremony in May this year while his fellow superstar Rajinikanth was.

The Tamil film industry wants to organise a gala event in partnership with the state government around the actual handover of the medal by the French government to Kamal. But Jayalalithaa's continuing silence on the award has confused the actors' association.

If the state government continues to ignore Kamal, the award function may be held as a private event in Chennai or Delhi, sources said.

It will also give Vijayan a chance to consider hosting the event in Kerala, now that Kamal has called him his chief minister too.