Monday 17 October 2016

Phata Poster Nikhla Deshbhakt

It used to be said that reel life imitates real, then they became our role models and real started aspiring for reel, and now in this era of narcissistic selfie society the reel life stars have become spokespersons on almost anything under the sun.

With the country sabre rattling with Pakistan over terror attacks and aggressive nationalism being the new credo of political correctness, wearing patriotism on one's sleeve is the new normal. The whole country seems to have become a garrison with every citizen being a combatant. And those in the film industry are no way immune to it.

The other day I came across a 'viral' video widely shared and 'liked' on Facebook, whose title if loosely translated from Hindi to English would mean 'Nana Patekar shows Salman Khan his place'.

The video is a rant by the Tiranga star, who initially buttresses his military credentials by claiming that he had served the army for a couple of years and then goes on to say that the soldier was the most important person in the country. The rest of our countrymen are insignificant and he equates his current profession of being a film star as something as inconsequential as bed bugs.

He then goes on to declare that a ‘jung’ was on with the neighbouring country and hence it can't be business as usual. So Pakistani stars acting in Bollywood was not on. 

To be fair he was prodded repeatedly  by the videographer to decry Salman Khan and the interviewer finally got more than enough sound bites to cobble up a surefire viral video.

Salman Khan has been a trollers’ delight for his usual foot in mouth remarks. However his recent statement on Pakistani actors was actually a huge deviation from status quo. For a change he really sounded sensible when he said Pakistani actors come with valid visas and they cannot be equated with terrorists. 

It would have been a perfectly humane remark at normal times, but it touched a raw nerve post-Uri attacks. While TV studios are vying with each other to play high decibel war drums, it was suicidal to say something on those lines. Salman was declared enemy of the state and many of his industry peers too joined the chorus.

The last I heard on Pakistani actors was that Cinema Owners Exhibitors Association of India (COEAI) has decided not to release movies starring them, in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka and Goa. Thus Karan Johar's Ai Dil He Mushkil (which has Fawad Khan) and Shah Rukh Khan's Raees (Mahira Khan) run the risk of not hitting the cinema theatres of many states. 

Cinema, music concerts, cricket matches are very visible symbols and targeting them often satiates the revenge lust of the chest thumping jingoists like the political senas of Mumbai. For them it provides good return on investment in terms of publicity if they storm studios and multiplexes.

Whereas amid all this turmoil the corporate-bania class happily carries out trade with Pakistan. Hence cheap cement from Pakistan continues to land at our ports and various border trading points and exports from India are shipped to Pakistan without any ado.

Same is the case with China. Now Diwali is round the corner and we are being bombarded with messages to boycott Chinese crackers as it always sides with Pakistan. Irony dies thousand  deaths because they are tweeted using phones and laptops laden with components made in Chinese manufacturing hubs like Shenzhen.

While we are fed with swadeshi homilies, our captains of industries make fortunes doing business with the very countries we are being told to hate.

Also Read: Bangalore Beat