Bengaluru, May 28 -- Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday expressed his pity towards actor Kamal Haasan following his reported remark "Kannada is born out of Tamil," stating that he was not aware of the "long-standing" history of the language.

"Kannada has a long-standing history. Poor Kamal Haasan, he is unaware of it," the Karnataka CM said.

Earlier, Congress MLA from Karnataka Rizwan Arshad expressed his disappointment over Haasan's remark, calling it unfortunate and questioning the necessity of such a debate at a time when national unity is paramount.

"What kind of a debate is this? The Kannada language has a history of thousands of years... Kannada and Tamil are ancient languages and part of our country's foundation....