Archive photo of Duraimurugan | Photo credit: The Hindu

A day after reacting to actor Rajinikanth’s comments about senior politicians, DMK general secretary and water resources minister Duraimurugan on Monday (August 26, 2024) said that he and the actor have always been good friends and there was no need to turn Mr. Rajinikanth’s “witty comments” into hate speech.

Mr. Duraimurugan was addressing reporters at a ceremony held in honour of late DMK president and former chief minister M. Karunanidhi at the Vellore Institute of Technology.

On Saturday (24 August 2024), at an event to launch a book on Karunanidhi, Mr Rajinikanth compared the DMK to a classroom full of former students.

“DMK has many old students. They refuse to leave the classroom even after securing a place in the exams. It is not easy to deal with them. There is Mr Duraimurugan who could make life difficult even for Kalaignar (Karunanidhi). Stalin sir, hats off to you,” he had said.

Responding to his remarks, Mr Duraimurugan said on Sunday (25 August 2024): “This is exactly how actors who continue to act in old age with falling out teeth and terminal beards, denying young actors a chance. How easy it is to say that.”