Why Sooryavanshi's success at the box office should worry us all - Page 8

Originally posted by: Journey95

Lazy token scenes like that mean nothing and are only there so they don't get backlash for being completely anti Muslim. If Rohit Shetty actually had fully realized Muslim characters it would be a different case.

Ok..so those were token scenes..then the so called problematic ones were made mountains out of molehills..

And again..it's not Anti Muslim.. understand the difference..it's anti terrorism..and the antagonists in this movie belonged to a country where majority people belong to that religion..specially the extremists..

You are giving Rohit Shetty far more responsibility than what he himself ever took. He is a lazy filmmaker and has hardly been able to handle serious subjects. His handling of a subject like gangrape was shoddy in Simmba.

How do you expect him to add various nuances?

Shetty had a Hindu godman and his cult as main villain in Singham Returns. I remember him and Ajay being trolled and labeled anti Hindu then. So?

Spare the filmmakers. They are here to tell different stories not to keep every community or politician happy.

I have seen Anushka trolled and Pataal Lok labeled anti Sikh, anti Muslim, anti Hindu etc. Now 83 was trolled and labeled anti Dalit, casteist, over one dialogue. Aashram set wad attacked labeling the series anti Hindu though it is based on real life case of Dera Sacha sauda whose godman is in jail for rape and murder now.

I mean where does it end? These web series and films are meant to show things which do happen in real life.

People do commit crimes in name of religion or caste. Portraying that is not a crime or agenda against any religion. And some dialogues are there because this is indeed how some people talk in real life. Showing something does not mean it is how all people are. It's just one character.

I guess people would have no issues if a radicalised criminal from other community was shown. Or Akshay played a silly character like Khiladi 420.

WaPo columns on this film are a stretch.

Originally posted by: atominis

The thing is SRK, Aamir, Naseer, Swara etc have expressed their opinions freely. They have made statements as and when they wanted to.

Yes they got trolled and threats. Some of their work is not shown on Govt channels like DD. But then even others like Anupam Kher, Paresh Rawal, Kangana, Swaroop Sampat etc have been trolled for their views. Akshay has been trolled like no tomorrow for that pre election interview with Modi.

So?

I mean these trolling, political biases keep happening.

SRK was clear that he did NOT want to be dragged into any agenda by media and that he does not choose characters based on their religion, he did not do films only for 'Muslim assertion'.

And here he was absolutely right when he wrote films are made for entertainment and not necessarily to make religious or political statement so he would not like to be dragged in any agenda by media on any side of political spectrum. He himself is fed up of likes of Rana Ayyub or Barkha Dutt writing columns using his name or cherry picking his films to link him to certain religion based political narratives.

Same way I feel it is absurd to link Rohit Shetty or Akshay to narratives in a masala film like Sooryavanshi. Especially when we have seen Akshay has done Atrangi Re which takes issue of honour killing and interfaith marriage, has him play a Muslim, done OMG which questions beliefs and worship, done Mission Mangal in which Vidya's son wants to be a Muslim.

Akshay has been labeled anti Hindu and love jihad promoter as well, which is absurd because an actor does not write scripts. He just chooses different types of films. Yet this writer Rana Ayyub easily ignored how Akshay has done many films which have positive references to Muslims or got him trolled for playing a Muslim. She just paints him as some sinister Hindu nationalist party supporter out to tarnish a community.

Just as she wrongfully generalised SRK as a guy doing Muslim characters and asserting Muslim identity in 'Modi's India', something which SRK criticised and refused to be dragged in any agenda.

Rana Ayyub is no different from those right wing sites that see conspiracy against Hindus and India everywhere. She sees conspiracy against her community everywhere and it is shocking if she dislikes portrayal of Indian Muslims and disliked any calling out of any extremist from Pakistan.

I see you praised Sarfarosh but FYI Aamir was also criticised for Sarfarosh and so was its director John Matthew Matthan because it was the first Indian film to directly name Pakistan instead of using pejoratives like 'padosi mulk, sarhad paar'. He was also mocked for doing patriotic films. Sunny Deol has always been made object of hate for patriotic films as well though those films are just 5-6 from his career of over 35 years.

I think there is a limit and we should be allowed to make any kind of film we want without sugarcoating or being dragged in communal politics. Rana is no different from those who called Akshay anti Hindu for doing OMG, Mission Mangal or accused him of promoting love jihad in Atrangi Re.

That comparison is pretty silly. Akshay is "trolled" for being Canadian and his interview but its all done in good fun and not serious. Meanwhile when SRK expressed his opinion people boycotted his movie, called him Pakistani and a traitor etc. they basically proved him right with his intolerance comment. That's why he doesn't say anything about politics anymore now and keeps quiet. He was basically forced to do so.

I know what he said about his movies and he is obviously right, he doesn't play Muslim characters for some message or anything so Rana was reaching there.

Rana may be biased and the opposite extreme of bhakts but the difference is that people like her have no power in India right now + they don't call for violence, the right does so they are the real problem in my opinion. Movies like OMG, Jodha Akbar or Haider or even PK would receive a ridiculous amount of backlash and boycott now. You should be allowed to do any type and like I said I had no problem with general islamic terror focused movies like Sarfrosh. But back then the overall political climate was very different. This movie meanwhile is basically pandering into the right who constantly think Muslims are all terrorists, don't belong in India and do love jihad.

Originally posted by: niyati13

Ok..so those were token scenes..then the so called problematic ones were made mountains out of molehills..

And again..it's not Anti Muslim.. understand the difference..it's anti terrorism..and the antagonists in this movie belonged to a country where majority people belong to that religion..specially the extremists..

They are only made "mountains out of molehills" if you ignore the current political climate in India. This movie plays right into right wing propaganda in many ways (although even then some of them were angry that even peaceful muslims were shown at all which shows that they will never be satisfied)

Sorry to break the bubble but situation was way more toxic earlier, and there used to be real life blasts, attacks, riots earlier. Unlike mere trolling now.

And it was toxic on all sides in 90s.

Mani Ratnam got threats and his house was attacked when he made Bombay. Theatres were attacked for screening Bombay just because it showed an interfaith couple.

Theatres were attacked in 2001 also for showing interfaith couple in Gadar.

Atleast now we have nothing of that sort and only shitty columns online or spammy IT cells and trolls.

Due to social media toxicity seems more. But it was worse earlier. And we can evolve rather than bringing street mob to internet mob and making it harder for filmmakers to make films.

It is laughable how Akshay and Rohit are labeled anti Hindu or anti Muslim depending on films they do.

Next we should have column in NYT to describe Akki and Rohit as agents to destroy all religions due to showing villains of different religions in their films.

I am glad Subhash Ghai did not release Karz and Ram Lakhan in this era or else he would be accused of having Christian sounding names like Sir John and Sir Judah for his villains and hence- communal, anti Christian, anti minorities, agent of Hindu nationalism and whatnot.

I can once understand if someone like Kangana is labelled a hater (which she indeed is). But Rohit Shetty is not a bigot. Akshay is close to BJP but not a hate monger.

Originally posted by: Journey95

They were mostly released at the beginning when the situation wasn't this toxic yet and their IT cell didn't have this much influence. Well OMG Part 2 is coming out next year I think so we will see if its still like the original but I guarantee it will just be pro Hinduism propaganda in every way and not dare to say anything controversial. Otherwise it will be boycotted.

Also you can't compare the situation now with 1998, social media didn't exist back then so even if people got upset they didn't have any influence. The problem is these days we only get movies portraying Muslims as cartoon villians, meanwhile Hindus are shown only as heroic. Its very one sided. Its not like there are still movies like PK or OMG or Haider made that show some nuance. Its all "Hindus perfect, Muslims bad".

At the same time you have Hindu religious leaders openly calling for genocide and general tension between the communities. Instead of asking for unity, Bollywood movies are basically BJP propaganda now.

The patriotic Muslim cop and citizens in Sooryavanshi are in like two lazy token scenes with no depth whatsoever. Very different from Sarfrosh which even had some bad Hindu characters and also a fleshed out heroic Muslim cop. Back then Muslim villians were rare in general

Not replying to u in particular..have seen this mentioned so many times here..how do people miss speeches of Owaisi and likes? I don't think this is the right place to post the links so I won't.. but u can look up.

Agar koi bolega ki Modi-Yogi ke baad aapko Kaun bachayega..then u r ensuring that people wouldn't want them to leave

So conclusion is that Bollywood is bigoted and runs right wing propaganda.

Achha hai kuch alag sun ne ko mila.. else most of the vocal BW celebs on SM r anti right wing

Originally posted by: catchmeifucan

Lol. and who told you I am that? Just because I don’t agree with the bigotry in the article that you posted? Aren’t you being a hypocrite on one hand saying India has to be more tolerant but on the other not being able to deal with a difference of opinion and jumping at people with your biased judgement?

@Blue: I don’t know if India is backward or whatever but if it is, then it’s thanks to bigots like you who cry ‘islalmophobhia/hinduphobia’ at the drop of a hat - because of your incapability of not being able to think anything beyond religion!

@Green: Why not? You just said the so called left in Amreeka wields a lot of power. Where is the power when they let Afganistan suffer in the hands of the extremists right under their guard? lol

@Red: Again, Which people? Most of the Americans don’t even know Modi - let alone caring about his political inclination. My friend, you are definitely talking about the ‘desi’ amreekans.

I'm not a bigot in any way, its not bigoted to be against anti Muslim propaganda (really any anti minority propaganda) which is openly done by BJP politicians and supported by many. And this movie basically panders to them. I even said I liked Sarfrosh and have no problem in general with muslim terrorism related movies, the important part is the execution and in general the political climate.

Many Americans who care a bit about politics know about Modi and think he is problematic (although of course he is loved by Trump supporters, although now that Hindus are even going after Christians that may change), popular politicans like Bernie Sanders even talked about the riots two years ago.

Originally posted by: niyati13

So conclusion is that Bollywood is bigoted and runs right wing propaganda.

Achha hai kuch alag sun ne ko mila.. else most of the vocal BW celebs on SM r anti right wing

I doubt many Bollywood celebs are actually right wing but they are forced to pander to them and the BJP because they fear the consequences if they don't. See what happened to SRK after the intolerance comments or how just some time ago his son was made public enemy Nr.1 for ridiculous charges.

Originally posted by: Journey95

I'm not a bigot in any way, its not bigoted to be against anti Muslim propaganda (really any anti minority propaganda) which is openly done by BJP politicians and supported by many. And this movie basically panders to them. I even said I liked Sarfrosh and have no problem in general with muslim terrorism related movies, the important part is the execution and in general the political climate.

Many Americans who care a bit about politics know about Modi and think he is problematic (although of course he is loved by Trump supporters, although now that Hindus are even going after Christians that may change), popular politicans like Bernie Sanders even talked about the riots two years ago.

Like it or not, the Hindu majority in India is a tolerant bunch. They are the ones who made the movies like OMG, PK etc successful - not the then Governments. Governments come and go but people will remain the same. You do the partition today again, I bet there will be more Muslims who will choose the Indian side.