Batwara 1947: Shabana stirs controversy

Sunny Deol recently starred in a film titled Batwara 1947. The film directed by Rajkumar Santoshi was backed by Aamir Khan. The film which released during Independence eve, failed at the box office.

In the midst of all this, Shabana Azmi came up with a controversial statement, talking about Batwara 1947 failure. She said “The thing is that you cannot accept Sunny Deol as a Muslim. In Coolie and in many other films, Amitabh Bachchan very comfortably played Muslim characters. In Deewaar, he put 786 and that was accepted. So how do we understand this? Are they creating an environment where such decisions are being taken on purpose? I am not able to understand.”

She continued “I am surrounded by people who tell me they have loved the film and the message. On the other hand, people didn’t go to the theatre and the ones who did, they walked out with confused reactions. The problem is that you cannot touch the subject of Hindustan and Pakistan in this setup, which is very disappointing. This is a film which is politically not incorrect in any way.”

---- Pramod Nandivada