Hogenakkal and Soft Targets
The Tamil Nadu Government wants to build a storage dam at the Hogenakkal waterfall at the Karnataka Tamil Nadu border. Given the tenuous relationship between the two states on the Cauvery issue, it is no surprise that this one was also doomed to litigation and controversy. The TN CM makes a statement in favor of the project and a political party in Karnataka promptly escalates the issue. Tamil movies and television channels reportedly get banned and business suffers.
Recently Ashutosh Gowarikar’s ‘Jodha Akbar’ got the stick from some groups who agitated and immediately got the movie banned in two states. I mean if you compare the historical inaccuracies in Hollywood movies like the Gladiator, Elizabeth, Braveheart etc., Ashutosh Gowarikar should be given an honorary PhD for his research and not hounded by huge mustachioed people.
We also remember the furor that was created when Aamir Khan chose to speak on the Narmada issue. Immediate result- Fanaa gets banned in Gujarat.
He even gets flak for choosing to run with the Olympic torch. I mean why? The whole Olympic torch run is obviously endorsed by our own government so why don’t people pick an issue with Manmohan Singh. He’s anyway probably running because he doesn’t want his next movie to be banned in West Bengal.
Our Health Minister picks a fight with Shahrukh Khan over smoking. Shahrukh Khan unwisely responds a couple of times. Probably the only reason why his movies haven’t yet got banned in TN is probably because the political set up there has a benevolent eye on the movie business since many politicians have a background in films. Khan also wisely lets the minister have the last word.
Amitabh Bachchan’s list of tussles with the politicians across the party spectrum never seems to end. Even after the Supreme Court throws out a case against him, the Mayawati government slaps a new one on him over not paying some dues worth 600 odd rupees! Raj Thackeray has now built his political career by baiting Bachchan.
Do you think politicians would have the guts to taken on a Ratan Tata or an Ambani? When Tatas make a big investment in one state over another do politicians call for their Cars to be banned from plying in their state?
I mean almost any photo which has the national flag and a movie star in the same frame leads to a PIL by some lawyer claiming disrespect to the national flag!
The film fraternity is a soft target. Just like the hero in our movies whose sister gets raped, brother gets bumped off, dad gets maimed and the mother loses her marbles or whatever when he decides to speak up against an atrocity.
Is it a surprise then that most of Bollywood prefers to keep a low profile on topics which don’t concern them and leave the battles to be fought by the affected individuals among them? So it’s left to the odd Mahesh Bhatt who can’t keep his mouth shut or a Preity Zinta who showed up in court once while every other witness turned hostile.
Today the Tamil Film industry has organized an eight hour fast protesting the violence which hampers their businesses in Karnataka. Rajnikant and Kamalhassan among others share a stage and make popular speeches requesting peace to prevail. More power to them! Other associations need to take lessons and defend themselves against similar harassments.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
DnC,
The actors associations in Thamizh film industry have evolved strongly for the past 10 years.
On the latest issue, they have managed to pull off a great feat of brining everyone together unlike previous protests where someone or the other were marginalised. Another notable thing was the rallying of Karntaka born artists in Thamizh film industry like Arjun, murali, Prabhu Deva in favour of thamizh film industry. This has broken the image that the on going issue is a Thamizh Vs. Karnataka issue. This time the speeches of Rajini and others have highlighted the fact that whatever happens in the political circle, arts and entertainment should not be made the target to vent the ire.