MUMBAI: Choreographer and actor Salman Yusuff Khan shared his experience after being allegedly harassed for not speaking Kannada at the Bengaluru airport.
‘Dance India Dance’ fame took to Instagram and shared a video explaining the entire incident that happened with him on Wednesday.
In the video, Salman Yusuff was seen dressed in a pink shirt along with a hat. He tagged Kempegowda International airport and wrote, “On my way to dubai and I meet this immigration officer who speaks to me in Kannada .. and I in my broken Kannada try to tell him that I understand the language but can’t speak so well to which he continues to speak in Kannada and shows me my passport and points out my name and my birth place and my fathers name and his birthplace and has the audacity to tell me that .. you and your father are born in bangalore and u can’t speak Kannada .. to which I replied .. that being born in bangalore doesn’t mean I’m born with the language … I could be born in Bangalore and travelled the world like I have been always a Saudi child bought up in Saudi .. (ps: I have never had Kannada as a language as I never lived in the country during my schooling .. what ever little that I know is through my friends ) to which he goes to the extent of saying that .. if u can’t speak Kannada I can suspect you …”
https://www.instagram.com/p/CpyKFXEBHWm/
When he tried to communicate in Hindi, the immigration officer warned that he could suspect him for not knowing Kannada.
He added, “I told him that I know my nations official language Hindi and my mother tongue is Hindi why should I know Kannada ..I asked him again suspect me for what ..?and he says . I can just suspect you for anything …I told him … TRY ME .And got a little louder and repeated TRY ME .. thrice …To which he kept quiet ..I told him that if uneducated people like you continue to live in this country this country will never grow …To which he just kept his head down and murmuring …Trying to report this incident to the airport authorities but no one seems to be guiding me ..well this is wht I get to represent my city and win national accolades.. that I have to prove my self to these uneducated Brutes ..Ps: I am a proud bangalorean but what I’ve faced today is unacceptable … you should always encourage people to learn any local language not demean them for not knowing it .. and pulling your parents name into it .”
Meanwhile, apart from dance shows like ‘Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa’, ‘Dance India Dance’, Salman has acted in films like ‘Wanted’, ‘ABCD: Anybody Can Dance’, and ‘Street Dancer 3D’. (ANI)