The atmosphere of intolerance around the movie Padmavati has upset actor Rohit Roy.
“For the first time, I’m sad, frustrated, enraged that I’m an Indian living in India... Never thought I’d ever say that. Indeed, very sad. Jai Hind,” Roy tweeted.
The actor posted multiple tweets commenting on the controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s historic epic, which has caused political parties and right-wing Rajput groups to jump into a debate over alleged distortion of historical facts in the movie based on Rajput queen Padmavati.
A BJP leader had offered a reward of Rs100 million (Dh5.6 million) to anyone who would behead lead actress Deepika Padukone and Bhansali.
“Today, people are offering rewards for the heads of actors/directors for a film that they haven’t seen one single frame of! The government is doing nothing to stop this abetting even! Forget creative freedom, isn’t this ‘intolerance’ scary for all Indians? Saddened,” he tweeted.
He said “India is what it is because of its diversity, sense of democracy and importantly, its secularism. Hinduism, a way of life, is inclusive in nature.”
“A film is being used by some for political leverage... Does calling to behead a gentleman in any way legal, tolerable or democratic? How then are the powers that be quiet about it? No arrests, no warnings even! History cannot be distorted, no question about it. But under the garb of respecting and safeguarding your history, is it okay to write your future in blood?
“Even using the word behead is barbaric! And what’s strange is that in protecting the ‘image’ of a ‘mother’, you want to behead a daughter of the country who is merely portraying her?”
Roy said he has always been a “proud Indian who holds our country’s history and geography in high esteem”.
“I have to say that this polarisation is going to debilitate India and bring it to its knees,” he added.
“India and Indians have become intolerant,” he stressed, and added that “one doesn’t know what wrath of which faction one will incur while even making a statement”.
