Shabana Azmi calls for IFFI Boycott over 'Padmavati' issue
text_fieldsThe country's veteran actor and activist Shabana Azmi has on Monday called for the film industry to boycott the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) on the grounds of the threats to Deepika Padukone, Sanjay Leelala Bhansali over the film Padmavati.
She issued a statement she said that the “film industry needs to take a strong unified action and refuse to be sitting ducks any more.”
Her statement read:
“The entire film industry, in one voice, must boycott IFFI Goa in protest against the threats issued to Deepika Padukone, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and Padmavati.
The Chief Minister of Rajasthan is sitting pretty. The first FIR lodged is under Arms Act because there was open firing; no action has been taken against the criminals threatening naked violence. Instead she and the CM of UP asking for a delay in Padmavati’s release because of law and order problems! But the first vow the CM took was to firmly clear the State of its criminal elements aur film ki release hone pey ghutne tika diye [and she is brought to her knees when the film is to release]?! Really, the States of UP and Rajasthan do not have the wherewithal to control criminals? Then they should vacate their seats for those who can!
CBFC sends film back because some paper formalities are not complete! They take recourse to some dormant rule that says only 63 days after the application is given will the film be screened for CBFC, and thus ensure that the Gujarat election is over and done with. Are we fools to not see through the design of fomenting unrest and polarising votes?
I am very angry. The film industry needs to take a strong unified action and refuse to be sitting ducks any more. If such threats had been made against any member of the political class, would the reaction have been the same? Are the people in the film industry not equal citizens of this country?
[Information and Broadcasting Minister] Smriti Irani is happily preparing for IFFI, which is possible only because the Indian film industry brings such acclaim to it, but keeps quiet about Padmavati? This is exactly like H.K.L. Bhagat and Congress celebrating IFFI in Delhi 1989 after the murder of Safdar Hashmi.
Please be reminded that I went up on stage then, and said that IFFI (where my film Madame Sousatzka was being premiered) was a façade, because the cultural activist Safdar Hashmi had been killed by Congress goons in broad daylight.
The canard that Javed and I are speaking now but kept silent when Taslima Nasreen was threatened is a LIE. Javed called Taslima and invited her to Mumbai. Both Javed and I went to fetch her at the airport (which she has gone on record to acknowledge), and held a public event where she was the chief guest.
This is not a partisan stand. There are legitimate ways of protest, and in a democracy, the right to dissent is an absolute right, provided it is done without violence. Putting a price on Deepika’s head is a criminal act and must be dealt with as such."
The film is set to be released on 1 December, but is facing stiff opposition from its detractors putting the actual release in doubt. It has not been included in the International Film Festival of India and faces stiff opposition from different sections for its portraying of the prince of Rajasthan in a fictitious canvass, and different from the historic figure, and for the heroine in national freedom struggle suffering distortion of historical facts. Although at first the criticism of the film was about hurting Rajput pride, it has of late taken on a different tinge as assaulting ‘Hindu prince’, and then the latter assuming a more political complexion behind the portrayal. In any case, all parties are circumspect in taking a position on the issue for fear of hurting popular sentiments in Rajasthan getting ready for polls soon, and also in neighbouring Gujarat where elections are closer at hand: in mid-December.
The film is a cinematic adaptation of the epic poem Padmavat, an Avadh epic poem based on which Malik Muhammad Jayasi wrote a fictionalised version and has been seen as such. Right in January when Bhansali was shooting for the film in City Palace, Jaipur there was violent resistance to the shooting. Karni Sena activists vandalized the film set and attacked Bhansali over an alleged romantic scene between Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji, the Delhi ruler who was smitten by her and attacked the Chittor fort in 1303 to claim her. The reactions to the film have been swinging at different stages, with both the BJP leadership across the board, and some prominent Congress leaders registering opposition to it. And to cite another face across the current political divide in Gujarat, BJP’s sworn adversary Hardik Patel of the Patidar community too had thrown his weight behind the calls against screening the film in its current form. Even former Bihar Chief Minister and RJD leader Lalu Prasad Yadav, with no love lost with BJP, who had lent support to the film at first has now retracted and stated that the facts of history should not be meddled with for the sake of art. It remains to be seen which side will win in this virtual art vs history battle, if it is one, and if anyone will.