Tiruchirapalli, 21 April

The MNM chief, actor Kamal Haasan, said that he sat on the laps of late Chief Minister MG Ramachandran and the legendary Tamil actor of yore Sivaji Ganesan as a child, and yet he never took advantage of that, in an apparent dig at actor-politician Vijay’s attempts to portray himself as the "successor of MGR".

Haasan was campaigning for DMK’s Tiruchirapalli East constituency candidate, Inigo S Irudayaraj, on the night of 20 April. Along with Irudyaraj, Haasan led a rally through Tiruchirapalli, urging people to vote for 'Rising Sun,' DMK's poll symbol. Incidentally, Vijay will also be contesting from Tiruchirapalli East.

"Like the other candidate here (referring to Vijay), I too joined the cinema at a very young age and know all the stars, but never exploited that. I used to sit on the laps of MGR and Shivaji (Ganesan); I did not take advantage of that. In fact, MGR liked me a lot," Haasan explained further.

When Vijay had come for campaigning here recently, he had stopped at the MGR statue for a photo-op.

Stating that his discipline was purely because he had great teachers, Haasan urged people to teach youngsters their own history, Haasan said.

"Tell the youngsters where this Rising Sun came from and how it dawned," he added.

Referring to the idea that Vijay pulls crowds wherever he has gone, Haasan said, "We held a massive gathering in Coimbatore, where 1.5 lakh people marched”.