Tech giant Google has courted a fresh controversy over wrongly inserting late Kannada thespian Dr Rajkumar's photograph for a character named 'Half Boil' in Vijay Sethupathi Tamil starrer "Vikram Vedha". The role of ‘Half Boil’ was played by Tamil actor Rajkumar, who is also been a part of popular films like Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom, Seethakaathi and NGK. He was seen playing supporting characters in these films. However, when you search for the cast of the film on Google, the search shows the Kannada thespian’s photo, instead of him.
Many Kannada film stars and several fans took serious objection to the goof-up by Google as Rajkumar, who died in 2006, is considered to be a Kannada cultural icon and is still remembered by millions of fans.
Highlighting this anomaly, Kannada Film Director, Actor and Writer Rishab Shetty took to his Twitter account and appealed to his followers on the microblogging site to report the error. "I have a request for everyone. "Vikram Vedha" film's Google search shows our Dr Rajkumar's photo in place of another actor. Please report it and correct the mistake," he wrote on his Twitter page on Monday evening.
Several fans too took to Twitter to share their disappointment. Irked by the goof-up, a user tweeted, "Am I the only who is getting Dr. Rajkumar as half boil when I search for the cast of film Vikram Vedha in Google ( Scroll Down in the cast) or else everyone is? I donno why continuously people making fun and insulting Kannada, Kannadigas. "Another said, "Dear @GoogleIndia @Google Dr. Rajkumar is an actor fr you, but he is an emotion to kannadiga's. Is this happening intentionally against kannadiga's or it is mistake? Recently kannada was worst language in your search,now this one.hopefully it ll get resolved soon. #RespectKannada."
Here's how celebs and fans reacted to the goof up.
Even after the filmmaker's tweet, Google has not changed the photo yet.
For the unversed, Rajkumar earned his demigod as well as Kannada cultural icon status for his performances in several genres -- romantic, action, drama, thriller and mythological. Almost all the movies were superhits and the actor won several awards for his performance. He was the only lead actor to win a National Award for singing. He breathed his last on April 12, 2016.
Earlier, the tech giant was forced to tender a public apology on June 4, after its search engine produced results on Kannada as one of the ugliest languages in the world.
-- with IANS inputs
