Kamal Haasan is known for his creativity. In 2000, he made a film titled Hey Ram. the film was directed and produced by Kamal Haasan himself. The film created a huge controversy at that time, as Kamal Haasan played the role of a person who tries to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi. The film had a star-studded cast of Rani Mukherjee, Shah Rukh Khan, Hema Malini, Girish Karnard, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Nassar,Atul Kulkarni and Vasundhara Das.
Congress party called for a ban on the film and even staged protests. Now Kamal Haasan after participating in Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra, speaking to scribes, shared why he made Hey Ram. He said, "My environment made me a bitter critic of Gandhi when I was in my teens."
Kamal Haasan continued, "Around the age of 24-25, I discovered Gandhi on my own and over the years, exponentially have become a fan. To actually correct yourself, and say sorry and that's why I made 'Hey Ram', where I played a parallel assassin wanting to kill Gandhiji. As he goes near to the person and truth, he changes, but it is too late, as somebody else does the job that he wanted to do, but he had changed his mind. That's the story of 'Hey Ram'." He concluded, "That is my way of saying sorry to my Bapu".