Ram Gopal Varma came out in support of Kamal Haasan in the ongoing 'Kannada language' statement controversy. The filmmaker tweeted, "Threats to ban #ThugLife in Karnataka unless @ikamalhaasan apologises, amounts to a new kind of HOOLIGANISM (sic)." However, he later deleted the tweet. Haasan, during an event of Thug Life, had said, "Kannada was born out of Tamil."