Kuala Lumpur, February 8 Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that his Malaysian counterpart, Anwar Ibrahim, is a "huge fan" of MGR, just like "many of us in India," as a song from the Tamil actor's movie 'Naalai Namathe' was played during a lunch hosted for the Indian leader.
Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran, popularly known as MGR, was a popular Indian actor, director, and producer who founded the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagami (AIADMK) party in Tamil Nadu and went on to become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He died in 1987.
'Naalai Namathe' is one of the actor's many blockbuster films, released in 1975.
"At the lunch hosted by my friend, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, one of the songs sung was 'Naalai Namathe,' from a movie starring the great MGR!" PM Modi posted on X.
Modi added that "Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, like many of us in India, is a huge fan of MGR!"
Malaysia has the second-largest Indian-origin community in the world, mostly Tamils.
Earlier, Prime Minister Modi, who is on a two-day visit to Malaysia, while addressing a community programme in Kuala Lumpur, said that "members of the Tamil diaspora in Malaysia are serving society in various fields and noted that the Tamil diaspora has been present in Malaysia for many centuries."
He said that, inspired by this history, India had established the Thiruvalluvar Chair at the University of Malaya and would now set up a Thiruvalluvar centre to further strengthen shared heritage.