Do we like Kamal Haasan?
Our score: 6 out of 10. No campaign against any group turned up, but critics have faulted his remarks on women and he is thin on the parliamentary job.
Kamal Haasan is a Tamil film giant who went into politics. He founded Makkal Needhi Maiam in Madurai in 2018, later allied it with the DMK, and was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha from Tamil Nadu in 2025. That is a big jump for a bloke best known for the screen.
His biggest stoush was the 2025 Kannada row. At the audio launch of Thug Life he said Kannada was born out of Tamil, Karnataka groups were furious, and a Bengaluru court granted an interim injunction on the Kannada Sahitya Parishat's suit barring him from defaming the language. He declined to apologise, and the Supreme Court said mobs and vigilante groups cannot take over the streets and told Karnataka to protect the film's release. It reads as a language-pride fight rather than a hate campaign, though Karnataka folks felt insulted.
On the harm test, there is no campaign against LGBTQ+ people, migrants or the climate in what I read, and I found nothing on his stance on trans rights, so that is a gap, not a pass. His loudest politics is against NEET, the medical entrance exam. In 2025 he said education could free people from oppression and Sanatana, and BJP figures accused him of dividing people along religious lines.
Lately he has been busy off-screen. In his February 2026 maiden speech he said a Tamilian would not beg, hit back at a Sitharaman remark about learning Tamil, and pledged not to sell his votes or his nation. Yet the numbers in August 2026 show a thin turnout: 26% attendance in the 2026 budget session, and a Chennai journalist said he was wasting a golden opportunity.
On the good side, he took a public stand for the film industry in January 2026 when Jana Nayagan was held up by censor certification, asking for fixed timelines, transparent evaluation and reasons for cuts. France honoured him in 2016 with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and he joked about advertising it.
Put together: decades in public life, no campaign against any group that I could find, a contested Sanatana comment, an undecided allegation from a co-star, and a Parliament record that is light on turning up. That is a lean yes, with eyebrows raised on the women stuff.