Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap says he has every right to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi to apologise for his trip to Pakistan last year, amid trolling over his posts on Twitter.
Kashyap was venting his frustration over the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India’s (COEAI) decision to curb the screening of Indian movies with Pakistani actors. This move has hit Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which features Pakistani actor Fawad Khan.
The filmmaker said Modi should say sorry for his trip to meet the Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on December 25, which was around the same time that Ae Dil Hai Mushkil was being shot.
This did not go down well with people on Twitter.
Justifying his tweets, Kashyap wrote: “Just to make it clear, I complain because I expect my government to protect us, I question the PM because I have every right to.”
“I am not going to address a party that has become redundant and irrelevant and is trying to find relevance again by using the film industry. We have been vulnerable for long, and have been paying the price by being used by everyone to find any kind of standing.”
The director contended that real trade between the two countries has “not faced any kind of opposition, but we must pay the price for it”.
“And anyone who questions my love for the country by shouting must prove their love by representing the country either on the border or prove your love by representing the country in an honourable way. Not by shouting here [on social media],” Kashyap said.
“And yes Sir Narendra Modi we need protection... It’s really high time. I refuse to live in the fear created by blind fanatics that you cannot have a conversation with your PM or question him or expect from him.
“I would rather ask my questions directly to the PM than trying to impress him by fake nationalism of banning ‘what puts you in news’,” he added.
Kashyap has directed films such as Black Friday, Dev.D, Gulaal and That Girl in Yellow Boots.
The COEAI on Friday said that movies featuring Pakistani actors would not be screened in single screen theatres in Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat.
The decision came amid heightened India-Pakistan tensions in the wake of a terror attack on an Indian Army camp in Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian Army’s surgical strikes on Pakistani territory.
