Commenting on the vote-obsessed mindset of the politicians, actor Kamal Hassan said that political parties are misusing the name of Gandhi. “Gandhi is way beyond the vote- obsessed agenda of today’s politics,” he said.

Talking on the sidelines of the release of the book, Sathiya Sothanai, the Tamil translation of Gandhi’s autobiography, ‘My Experiments with Truth,’ Kamal Hassan said that Gandhi’s leadership was always grounded, and added that leadership was like slippers to the man.

“Gandhi never saw leadership as a crown, as they do now. To him, it was more like the slippers he wore,” he said.

Kamal Hassan also opined that religion and politics are the two diseases that are actually being praised.
“There are is no other disease which is lauded so much today,” he said.

He further added that that today’s political parties were behind votes and power, and added that they don’t have time to talk about Gandhi and his ideas.

Addressing the youth and his fans, Kamal Hassan also said that people should not wonder if they are worthy enough to speak about Gandhi, but that they should speak about him more and more to know him better.

“Do not hesitate to talk about him. The more you talk, the more you would learn. It took me 35 years to decipher his ideologies and him,” he said.

About his film, ‘Hey Ram,’ which was loosely based on the life and times of Gandhi, Kamal Hassan said that the research for the film proved to be a learning process about Gandhi as a man and world citizen.

On the documentary which he had planned; Kamal informed that he had thought of portraying the journey, starting from Italy, of the lead (used for making the bullet), which apparently killed Gandhi.

“I had named the documentary, ‘LEAD on Gandhi,’ which talks about his leadership and the lead that was used to kill him. Unfortunately, it could not be completed,” he said.

The book, Sathiya Sothanai, was published by Sapna Book House, and written by poetess and programming officer of Podhigai TV Channel, Coimbatore, Andal Priyadharshini.