Raj Thackeray not against Dilwale screening

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena president Raj Thackeray on Tuesday declared that he did not support a proposed boycott of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dilwale called by an affiliated unit of the MNS.

"I wish to make it clear that the MNS Chitrapat Sena's (MNSCS) decision to boycott the film (Dilwale) is not the official stand of the party," Raj Thackeray said in a statement here on Tuesday.

The statement came in the wake of MNSCS chief Amey Khopkar's call on Monday appealing to the masses not to patronize Dilwale as its lead actor Shah Rukh Khan remained unmoved by the farmers' plight in Maharashtra.

"While Shah Rukh donated Rs.10 million (Rs.1 crore) to the flood-hit people of Chennai, he seems to have forgotten the drought-hit farmers of Maharashtra. We strongly condemn this," Khopkar had said calling on viewers to boycott the forthcoming SRK release on December 18.

Endorsing Khopkar's stance, Raj Thackeray said that SRK must understand that after coming to Maharashtra, becoming big and earning millions, it is not right to forget the state, but said boycotting Dilwale was not the MNS's official stand.

The popular SRK-Kajol pair - which gave Bollywood its longest running movie in history Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge - will be seen again in Rohit Shetty's Dilwale five years after the hit movie, 'My Name Is Khan', which was their eighth film together in over 20 years.