Salman Khan joins Hate row
Actors Salman, Sohail Khan and Suneil Shetty on Tuesday joined a growing list Bollywood personalities in opposing police ban on MNS chief Raj Thackeray, who had targeted North Indians, from going public with his speech.
The actors expressed their support in the signature campaign being held by MNS to oppose the gag order imposed on Raj by the city police preventing him from holding public rallies and press conferences.
"Salman, Sohail and their father Salim Khan are among those who have expressed their support by sending us letters," MNS spokesperson Shishir Parkar said.
Actors Nana Patekar and Shreyas Talpade have already opposed the gag orders.
Personalities from the world of Marathi literature, theatre and films have also come out in support of Raj.
Parkar claimed MNS had collected over ten lakh signatures in support of the party chief during a signature rally being conducted in Maharashtra.
Producer Sajid Nadiadwala and director Sajid Khan clarified that although they had participated in the signature rally opposing a gag order against Maharashtra Navanirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray, they are not supporting his stand on north Indians.
The Mumbai police had Feb 11 slapped orders against Raj Thackeray preventing him from addressing public rallies or press conferences after his comments against north Indians living in Mumbai caused tensions and violence. It received a legal stamp as a city court subsequently upheld the order.
Thackeray said the people sympathised with north Indians because they were hardworking, but no one accepted the fact that they were snatching jobs from Maharashtrians.
"Why do north Indians (living in Mumbai) have to show off in the form of celebrating their festivals? Neither the Gujaratis nor Tamilians show off their pride," Thackeray said.
Apart from these two filmmakers, other Bollywood personalities like Nana Patekar participated in the signature rally. Over 500,000 signatures were collected in support of Thackeray.
Both Nadiadwala and Sajid believe that they are entertainers first and have nothing to do with politics whatsoever.
Nadiadwala said: "The reason I signed the signature campaign has nothing to do with any political issue. It is about supporting freedom of expression. I would like to reiterate that I have nothing to do with politics, so please keep me out of this."
Seconding his views, Sajid Khan added: "We have deep respect for and faith in the media, so we would request the media to hear our side of the story responsibly and urge them to present the right picture."
They also said that the entire issue has been misconstrued and given unnecessary political overtones.
The rumour started when they were questioned about "gag" order and they said that they advocated "freedom of expression" to be used responsibly considering "we live in a democracy".
In the past too, they have spoken against censorship in cinema and other issues pertaining to freedom of expression. But that again has nothing to do with politics.
In fact, the duo feels that entertainment is one area that binds Indians across the world.
Nadiadwala produced Sajid's hit directorial venture "Heyy Babyy".
Anupamaa
52