BHOPAL: Controversy erupted in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal on Friday, just before The Kashmir Files (TKF) director Vivek Agnihotri arrived to attend a film festival in the capital city.
A recent video interview of Agnihotri in which he is seen saying Bhopali means homosexual went viral over social media since the morning, triggering protests and widespread criticism, particularly from the opposition Congress politicians.
“I’ve grown up in Bhopal, but I’m not a Bhopali, as Bhopali has a different connotation. I’ll explain it to you some other time privately, but you can ask any Bhopali about it. If someone says he is a Bhopali, it generally means he is a homosexual or has Nawabi Shauk (Nawabi liking),” Agnihotri was seen saying in the video interview, which was tweeted among others, by the ex-MP CM Digvijaya Singh.
Slamming the filmmaker for the ‘Bhopali means homosexual’ remark, the former MP CM Digvijaya Singh wrote on the twitter, “Vivek Agnihotri Ji this must be your personal experience, but not of any common Bhopali. I’ve been associated with Bhopal and Bhopalis since 1977, but have never had any such experience.”
The viral video interview also triggered protests from the National Students Union of India (NSUI) – Congress’s student wing – in Bhopal. Senior Congress leader Bhupendra Gupta, while demanding unconditional apology from Agnihotri over his remark, said, “If he (Agnihotri) doesn’t apologize publicly for the remark within 24 hours, then we’ll proceed to lodge a case against him for denigrating our great city Bhopal.”
Amid the controversy, meanwhile, Agnihotri arrived in Bhopal and planted two saplings (Shiv and Sharda) with MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan in the city.
Much to his pleasant surprise, Agnihotri’s fervent appeal to MP CM to help him establish a Genocide Museum in Bhopal, got immediate response from Chouhan. The MP CM promptly announced giving land and all other support to the filmmaker for establishing the Genocide Museum in MP.
“This museum once started will be such, which will even transform a terrorist into a peace loving human being,” Agnihotri said while addressing the film festival organized in Bhopal in the evening.
When queried by the local scribes about his controversial Bhopali meaning homosexual remark (which had gone viral over social media in the morning), Agnihotri, why is the interview being run in an edited and distorted manner. “What I said was what I heard while I was aged 6-7 years in Bhopal. But today’s Bhopal is a city which has fantastic roads, safety for women and all round development. Talk about the present Bhopal.” Agnihotri maintained.