MUMBAI: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut has termed the boycott on Deepika Padukone’s film 'Chhapaak' as a “Talibani Trait” while adding that there is no space for such tendency in India.
Raut, who is a Rajya Sabha MP and editor of the party mouthpiece 'Saamana', came down heavily against the BJP without naming it and gunned at the tendency to declare other traitors and boycott them.
“I don’t know about political inclination of Deepika. But, I admire her. You shared power with traitors in Kashmir, but she didn’t speak about that. She didn’t reveal her stand on that. She just met the students at JNU. She expressed her sentiments silently. I feel it is wrong to boycott her film and term her traitor just because she expressed her sentiments,” Raut said on Saturday.
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Raut also recalled a similar old incident when Amitabh Bachchan’s movie “Shehanshah” was boycotted.
“Amitabh was close friend of the then Prime Minister Rajeev Gandhi. He was also a Congress MP. During that time when people tried to block screening of Bachchan’s Shehanshah just because of his political alliance, Balasaheb Thackery firmly stood beside him. He didn’t let people block the screening of the movie,” Raut said.
Raut also equated the boycott with emergency.
“When I see that people are termed traitors just because they keep different opinions than yours and films are being boycotted, I start feeling that the emergency was much better than this,” Raut said.
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“Where are the people who were crying foul over freedom of expression when the movie ‘Kissa Kursi Ka’ was blocked during emergency?” he asked.
Raut also raised the issue of Ajay Deogan’s movie based on a Maratha Warrier “Tanhaji” being blocked from release in Karnataka.
“The issue is not about Deepika or Tanhaji. The issue is about the atmosphere in the country. Films being blocked and boycotted is the Talibani trait and we don’t have any space for such trait in India,” Raut said.