Art attack

Jasmine Singh

The anger against the terrorist attack in Uri now takes another form with Raj Thackeray led MNS asking Pakistani actors to leave the country immediately, failing which the shooting of their movies will be stalled. The development has thrown in some serious questions to the public as well as the artistes’ fraternity. Does imposing a ban on artistes solve the problem? Are we just trivialising the issue? What purpose will this serve?

What’s your act?

The Bollywood film fraternity has come out with strong reactions. Famous director Hansal Mehta actually took a dig at MNS, “In one master-stroke they have solved the India-Pakistan problem. After all it is the artistes who provoke attacks." On the other hand, director Vikram Bhatt has said this is ‘just trivialising’ the issue. “We should concentrate on making sure that Pakistan is declared a terrorist state. That should be our effort. This (asking Pakistani actors to leave) is like trivialising the issue —whether artists or cricket should be allowed or not.”

Find a better solution

Pakistani actors like Fawad and Ali Zafar have a huge fan base in India. For their fans here, this is not the solution. “Is this our answer to the terrorist attacks? Instead of a counter-attack on their country, we are targeting artistes, which wouldn’t of course serve any purpose,” says Anurag Singh, final-year law student who has been tweeting about this announcement.

Richa Swaroop, a textile-designing student from Ropar, sounds amazed. “Find a better solution; banning Pakistani artistes will not solve the problem of militancy. The attack in Uri did not happen because of Fawad Khan.”

Some Pak talk

Exhibitions in Tricity dedicated to Pakistani food and clothes have always been welcomed. Mriyaar Khan, based in Bengaluru, has been working in collaboration with the Chandigarh corporate circle for long. “This is totally unfair, we have always received a great response each time we’ve put up an exhibition anywhere. This announcement is only spreading fear in the general public. It could affect people’s mind set in the long run.”

This might happen

Dr Subhash Chandra, chairman of the Zee Media Network and Rajya Sabha MP, made a strong statement on his social media on the same. Saturday morning, he tweeted, "Unfortunate stance of Mia Sharif at UN. Zee is considering stopping Zindagi programmes from Pakistan; artists from there should leave."

Chandra has also added weight to the demand that Pakistani artistes leave India. However, this is just a consideration as of now. There is no official announcement as yet.

[email protected]