Kamal Haasan hopes for peace returning to Sri Lanka

Chennai, May 1 (IANS) South Indian superstar Kamal Haasan Friday said he hoped that peace will return to Sri Lanka through the efforts of Tamils the world over.

'We want the ethnic minority Tamils in Sri Lanka to live honourably and peacefully through the endeavours of those speaking the language worldwide,' Haasan told reporters at the launch of 'Unnaippol Oruvan', a remake of a Hindi movie 'A Wednesday'.

'I have named the film 'Unnaippol Oruvan' (someone like you) borrowing the title from one of my favourite Tamil authors (Jnanpith award winner) Jeyakanthan. While Mohanlal plays a role as important as mine in the movie, my Hollywood trained daughter Shruti is scoring its music,' Haasan said.

'The movie is a bold statement against terrorism and yet another attempt on my part to render it into a globally extinct,' Haasan added.

According to publicists, the movie's August release would coincide with Haasan's completion of golden jubilee in showbiz.

While Haasan will portray the role of an ordinary proactive civic-minded citizen (played by Naseeruddin Shah), Mohanlal and Venkatesh will essay the part of a tough policeman in Tamil and Telugu respectively essayed by Anupam Kher in the Hindi original.

Haasan's earlier anti-terrorist film was a Telugu-Tamil bilingual 'Anandha Mazhai' in which he played a senior police officer. It was a remake of 'Drohkaal' made originally in Hindi by filmmaker Govind Nihalani.

Another of Haasan's movies 'Punnagai Mannan' (1986) had a Sinhalese-Tamil angle that had starred multilingual actress Revathi Menon.