Bollywood battles the bullies
Posters of Sunny Leone starrer Jism 2 were removed from 75 BEST buses in Mumbai
In another case of hooliganism, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena men vandalised John Abraham’s van after an argument over the use of a private road with the watchman of a company, where the actor was shooting. Four days ago, the NCP came down heavily with their moral policing and forced the Mumbai Mayor to remove Jism 2 posters from BEST buses.
From tearing down posters to burning effigies of Bollywood personalities, most political parties have attacked B’town in many ways, says filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt. “The film industry has always been a soft target. Attacking celebrities verbally or in print is the best way to garner publicity for these people,” says Bhatt.
Director Mohit Suri says that any kind of hooliganism won’t be accepted by the film industry. “Hooliganism was and will always be unacceptable,” he adds. But the fight so far seems to be one-sided, with filmmakers often giving up to the demands of the politicos.
Ramesh Taurani, however, believes that the film fraternity is strong enough to get back on miscreants. “Everyone finds it easy to attack Bollywood. But the fraternity has stood strong and as a part of the producer’s guild, we have approached the chief minister of Maharashtra and have made various demands regarding security issues,” he says.
Then why isn’t the film industry able to do anything about it? Filmmaker Karan Johar received faced a lot of trouble from MNS for using the word “Bombay” instead of “Mumbai” in Ranbir Kapoor-starrer Wake Up Sid. The film was released only after Karan apologised to MNS chief Raj Thackeray. Soon after that Shiv Sena and RSS activists went on a rampage against My Name is Khan, tearing posters of the film and burning effigies of Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan after the actor questioned why Pakistani players were not being allowed to play in the Indian Premier League.
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