A kerfuffle has broken out between the BJP and the Trinamool after Bollywood superstars Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan spoke on issues around censorship. Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi commended their stand against ‘controversies-a-day created around movies, moral policing, boycott calls”. It’s high time indeed to break the silence, the Shiv Sena MP said amid boycott calls against SRK-Deepika Padukone-starrer Pathaan which is scheduled to be released in 2023.
Besharam Rang, the only song of the movie that has been released, is at the centre of a raging controversy as BJP leaders questioned the use of saffron colour in Deepika Padukone’s bikini in a song titled ‘Besharam rang’ or ‘unabased colour’. Apart from boycott calls against the movie, a complaint against the song has been submitted to the information and broadcasting ministry.
Both Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan spoke about film censorship in their remarks at the opening ceremony of the Kolkata International Film Festival on Thursday.
“Social media is often driven by a certain narrowness of view that limits human nature…I read somewhere negativity increases social media consumption and thereby increases its commercial value as well…Such pursuits enclose collective narrative making it divisive and destructive,” Shah Rukh Khan said in his first comment amid the controversy.
Talking about the evolution of cinema, Amitabh Bachchan said even now questions are being raised on civil liberties and freedom by Indian cinema.
The comments have triggered a social media war between the BJP and the Congress after BJP’s Amit Malviya said Amitabh Bachchan’s comments held a mirror to Mamata Banerjee.