Last week, actor-politician Kamal Haasan gifted a car to a Coimbatore-based woman who quit her job as a bus driver over a controversy surrounding issuing a travel ticket to DMK MP Kanimozhi recently.
The car was provided to Sharmila, Coimbatore's first woman bus driver, on behalf of the Kamal Panbattu Maiam (Kamal Cultural Center) to enable her to become a driver-entrepreneur, the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) chief said in a statement.
"I was anguished over the recent debate surrounding Sharmila, who was a very good example to women of her age. Sharmila should not remain a mere driver. My belief is to create many Sharmilas," Haasan added. He added that she would now use the car for rental service and become an entrepreneur.
Sharmila had to quit her job after Kanimozhi who took a ride in her bus was disrespected by a colleague, and also because her management accused her of seeking publicity by inviting prominent personalities to travel in the bus.
She claimed she had intimated her management about the proposed visit of the MP, but she could not digest the "disrespect" meted out to the DMK leader. The transport firm denied being informed about Kanimozhi's visit and insisted Sharmila had left on her own accord.
On the work front, Haasan has now boarded Nag Ashwin's multilingual sci-fi movie ‘Project K.’ Headlined by Prabhas and Deepika Padukone, the upcoming big-budget film is produced by C Aswani Dutt, founder of Vyjayanthi Movies. Production house Vyjayanthi Movies shared Haasan's casting announcement on its official Twitter page.