Karan Johar has finally spoken over the uproar surrounding his upcoming film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which has been the subject of heated political debate after right-wingers campaigned for a ban on the film.
In a video message, Karan showed distress for being called an anti-national.
He implored that the political scenario was completely different during the film shooting.
“There were efforts made by our government for peaceful relationship with our neighbouring country and I respected those endeavours and efforts then and I respect the sentiments today,” he said.
The director appealed for smooth screening and added “over 300 Indians in my crew have put their blood, sweat and tears into my film and I don’t think it is fair to them to face any kind of turbulence from other fellow Indians.”
Karan’s video message comes after an association of Indian cinemas said earlier this month that they would not screen any films featuring Pakistani artists.
The ban by the India’s Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association (COEA) applied to single screen cinemas in four states and is likely to affect the forthcoming release of movies Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, Dear Zindagi and Raees.
Hindu nationalist groups pressurised the production team of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil to drop actor Fawad Khan from the film.
A small but noisy right-wing group Maharashtra Navnirman Sena had threatened to stop the October 28 release of the movie.
“I have remained silent because of the deep sense of hurt and a deep sense of pain I felt, that a few people actually believe that I am anti-national,” Johar said in his video message.
The director condemned terrorism and also declared that he wouldn’t work [in future] with Pakistani actors given the current political atmosphere in the country.
“Going forward I would like to say that of course I will not engage with talent from the neighbouring country given the circumstance,” he added.
Following the militant attack [Uri attack] the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association, which represents a number of Hindi film industry employees, acted to ban Pakistani artists until relations between New Delhi and Islamabad would improve.
