Mumbai: Filmmakers Hansal Mehta, Sudhir Mishra, and Pritish Nandy on Monday called for immediate solidarity against the continuing targeting of the Hindi film industry following the attack on director-producer Prakash Jha and his co-workers in Bhopal during the shooting of the third season of the series “Ashram”. Emphasized the need. Bajrang Dal activists allegedly ransacked the sets of the film on Sunday and threw ink accusing Jha of defaming the image of Hindus. The series was released last year and has Bobby Deol playing a character named Baba Nirala who is a fake cleric. Sharing the news on his Twitter account, Mehta said that the people of the film industry should raise their voices against the attack on their co-workers.
The director, who made “Scam 1992”, said, “Being silent out of fear will only increase the power of those goons and their riots will increase. But who will tie the bell around the cat’s neck?” Actress Swara Bhaskar said she was horrified to learn about the incident and said it shows the growing intolerance in the country. He tweeted, “Shocking, shameful and unbelievable incident. No one is safe in New India… With the exemption given to mob violence, we have reached the point where anyone can be attacked for anything. Bizarre and terrifying.”
According to the police, the glass panes of two buses of film production people were broken in stone-pelting and members of Bajrang Dal had threatened that they would not allow any more shooting of the web series. Sudhir Mishra condemned the attack and expressed hope that the film association will stand by its members. He wrote, “This is horrifying. The industry will have to unite against this… (Need to say) film associations stand with their members.”
Responding to Mishra, filmmaker Ashwini Choudhary wrote that film associations do not stand for anything and that they are in collusion with the government which is promoting chaotic elements. The Producers Guild of India and the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FYs) on Monday condemned the incident and said the government should take action against such violence. Filmmaker Pritish Nandy tweeted, tagging Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur, “Such attacks are not stopping. Now is the time for the ministry to speak on this and take action against these people. They’re getting out of you.” Filmmakers Sanjay Gupta, Abbas Tyrewala, and others also condemned the attack on Prakash Jha’s aides.
