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Top film director
grovels before goon-style politician
WSN Network
 MUMBAI:
There is no end to the bravado depicted in Bollywood movies. So many
heroes have vowed to fight and die for so-called Bharat Mata that
jingoism is the official Indian language. And Bollywood is forever
preaching fearlessness.
Except that it
buckles when the first lumpen comes along.
One simple
threat from Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), which carries out near
goonda style politics, and well known filmmaker Karan Johar rushed
to apologise to Raj Thackeray. Cowering and grovelling, Karan
apologised for using the word Bombay instead of Mumbai a couple of
times in the movie Wake Up Sid.
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A number of Sikh community intellectuals wondered what kind of
approach Sikhs should adopt towards the unending stream of
incidents in various movies that Bombay film industry produces
which show the community in a poor light. |
He agreed to put
a disclaimed before the start of the movie that the word was wrongly
used even as
Raj warned
filmmakers against repeating the mistake. Significantly, the MNS
made sure that the grovelling meeting was telecast on all TV
channels. Even later, in one after the other election rally (Maharashtra
is going to polls) that Raj addressed on Friday, he referred
repeatedly to how he had forced a Bollywood major to submit to his
demand.
Clearly, the
goons continue their regime in Maharashtra and the Indian Government
feels helpless to act. In case of any minority, it would have acted
swiftly and thrown people-friendly leaders in jail as it has done in
case of Punjab.
 A
number of Sikh community intellectuals wondered what kind of
approach Sikhs should adopt towards the unending stream of incidents
in various movies that Bombay film industry produces which show the
community in a poor light.
Many of these
incidents have been brought to light in recent times by Sikh
intellectuals who have tried to impress upon the film producers,
actors and directors to keep in mind religious sentivities but to
little avail. After the Karan Johar-Raj Thackeray incident, it is
becoming clear that the industry will rather listen to might than
sanity.
Johar of course
has found some justification for explaining his grovelling before a
don style politician. "A film is the labour of love of hundreds of
people. It is my duty to protect their interests and, at the same
time, assure the people of Maharashtra that there was never an
intention to hurt anybody's sentiments. I told Thackeray that Mumbai
is an integral part of the narrative and has been dealt with the
utmost reverence," said Johar.
7
October 2009
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