'Voters in Kerala are foolish': Malayalam actor Sreenivasan kicks up row

The actor made the statement in an interview to popular women's magazine Vanitha.

news Controversy

Mollywood actor Sreenivasan laid the foundation for a fresh controversy after he said in an interview that voters in Kerala are foolish.

"There is this opinion that voters in Kerala are highly intelligent. In reality you will not see such foolish voters in any other part of the world," the actor said in an interview to Vanitha, a popular Malayalam women's magazine.

Elaborating on his remark, he said, "This is evident from the first election here. The right and left fronts here plan for 10 years when they come to power. In the five years they are in power, they loot and keep. Then the next five years they rest when the other front comes to power. Then they carry out some small protests and yatras. They know that even if they don't do anything they will come to power in the next term. This way, both the fronts are taking the voters for a ride," he said.

Recounting an experience he had while going to cast his vote, he said, "I once went to vote and when I went there I came to know that my vote had been cast half an hour ago,"

The actor who was discussing politics in the state said, "Democracy or people's rule just turns into despotism after a while. Even in Kerala, national parties are operating like mafia gangs with extortion, bandhs, atrocities, murder..."

The actor stated that the only relief was that, unlike in other states, Kerala did not have the practice of paid votes.

"In Kerala however if you pay money to a voter, he will vote for your opponent," he said.

When asked whether he thought cinema had the power to transform the world, the actor said that it was highly unlikely.

"We listen to Gandhiji's words and still don't change. So it is highly impossible that people would change after watching one movie. However, cinema does have the potential to influence certain decisions made by people. For instance, the film How old are you came as a major motivation for women in many ways," he said.