Mani Ratnam Reacts To Anurag Kashyap’s Criticism Over English Lyrics In Tamil Songs

Filmmaker Mani Ratnam is currently gearing up for the release of his movie Thug Life, which will hit the screens on June 5, 2025. The movie marks his collaboration with Kamal Haasan nearly four decades after their iconic film, Nayakan. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the director has reacted to Anurag Kashyap’s criticism over the use of English lyrics in Tamil songs. Read on to know what he said.

Mani Ratnam responds to Anurag Kashyap's criticism over English lyrics in Tamil songs

Mani Ratnam said most of his film titles have been in Tamil but "it’s not a restrictive thing." You don’t go in with rules saying - I will do only this. I think a medium opens itself up. If it feels right, then you take that step that feels right for you. Why box yourself in with some false grammar?”, the Dil Se director continued.

“Sometimes you need a song like Sugar Baby, and it feels right, then you go for it. There’s no… I mean, there’s no one way or the other. As long as you care enough for both,” he added.

When the National award-winning filmmaker was asked if the English lyrics or titles are used to appeal to younger audiences, he refuted it and said, “But that alone cannot sell. That alone doesn’t make a product. Just trying to be young and cool is not enough. A film will show you who you are when it is finished. So you cannot get away with these false things. That can only help a story if it sets the characters like that, and you have to bring that across.”

On how he stays relevant to the younger audience, Ratnam said, “If you have to write a script based on mafia people, you’ve never been one. But you still write films based on that. Similarly, for today’s youngsters, if you want to write, you learn, you see, and you write on that. So it’s not very difficult.”

What Anurag Kashyap said about Tamil songs

Recently, during a session at The Huddle by The Hindu, Anurag Kashyap criticised the recent trend in Tamil cinema where lyrics and compositions of film songs are in English.

Anurag, while speaking to film critic Baradwaj Rangan, said, "A recent phenomenon is that Tamil has also started trying to compete with Telugu Pan-India films, because suddenly Tamil songs are in English. I’m like, why? Suddenly, they’re all (sounding) like some foreign rock band, singing in English — like ‘I’m coming for you. I’m gunning for you.’ This is not a Tamil song. Tamil songs used to be like what we used to borrow in Hindi, like from Ilaiyaraaja and everybody, but now Tamil songs don’t make sense to me."