A still from Kuselan

Bangalore, July 31: A sorry with an eye on the silver screen.

A day ahead of the release of his latest film Kuselan, swashbuckling cine star Rajnikanth today apologised to Kannada fringe groups for remarks allegedly made against Kannadigas at the height of the Hogenakkal water row between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu earlier this year.

Pro-Kannada groups had decided to prevent the release of Kuselan in Karnataka tomorrow unless the superstar apologised. The Rs 100-crore film is scheduled to release in 18 theatres in the state, including seven in Bangalore city.

As D-day neared and activists protested vociferously in front of the Karnataka film chamber of commerce office, Rajnikanth made a dramatic retreat and apologised through a television channel from Hyderabad.

Speaking in Kannada, the star with humble beginnings as a conductor in Bangalore Transport Service said he had a lot of respect for Kannadigas and reminded them he had begun his journey to stardom among them.

“I am not a politician. While talking on the Hogenakkal issue, there could have been some mistakes. But more important, we should not repeat the mistakes. I only appeal to them (the activists) that I have not forgotten that I was a bus conductor in Bangalore. In future, I will be more careful and I assure you that I will not hurt anyone,” he said.

The protesters, among them Sa Ra Govind, a distributor and language activist, immediately welcomed the apology. Praveen Shetty of the Kannada Rakshana Vedike, while accepting the apology, hoped the organisation’s threat to stop the film’s release would serve as a warning to other Tamil stars whose movies are regularly screened in Karnataka.

Rajnikanth had upset some people in Karnataka by showing up at a bandh organised by the Tamil film fraternity to drum up support for the water project — a reservoir — which Karnataka does not want to come up. The superstar had blamed Karnataka’s politicians for raking up the controversy for mileage ahead of the May Assembly elections in the state.

Smarting from the “insult”, activists led by former MLA Vatal Nagaraj and the Vedike, a group that champions the Kannada language, had asked for an unconditional apology before the film’s release in Karnataka.

Rajnikanth, born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad to Marathi-speaking parents in Bangalore, was a bus conductor till he was spotted by a film director while twirling a lit cigarette in what has now become his trademark.

He soon moved to Madras and became a superstar, acting in over 150 films in Tamil, Kannada and Hindi.

Rajnikanth is revered in Karnataka and his last movie, Shivaji -- The Boss, ran for more than 100 days and released simultaneously in over 30 theatres in the state.

The superstar today appealed to the protesters to allow the smooth release of his film. He said cinema and politics were separate and requested the media not to blow his apology out of proportion.

But the Boss’s apology has not gone down well with some of his fans. Adi Murugesh, an ardent Rajni-ite, said there was no need for the star to stoop under pressure from the pro-Kannada outfits.

“He should not have apologised. This sets a bad precedent,” Murugesh said.