India, May 28 -- Actor Kamal Haasan, who received backlash for his comment that the Kannada language was born out of Tamil, reacted to the row on Wednesday, saying he spoke "out of love" and that politicians such as him should leave such discussions to language experts.

Haasan, who is the president of the Makkal Needhi Maiam (MNM) party, during the audio launch of his upcoming film 'Thug Life' in Chennai, claimed that 'Tamil gave birth to Kannada".

The actor received flak from several political parties and pro-Kannada outfits who demanded that he apologise for hurting the sentiments of the linguistic community.

"What I said was said out of love and a lot of historians have taught me language history. I didn't mean anything. Tamil Nadu ...