Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 17 advised BJP members against making “unnecessary remarks“ on films. According to reports, the Prime Minister, in his address to party workers at the BJP national executive, said, “No one should make unnecessary comments that would overshadow the hard work we do.”
Mr. Modi suggested that such remarks put the party’s development agenda on the back-burner, sources told PTI.
Some party leaders often take a critical stance on movies, Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Pathaan being the latest example, for “hurting” people’s feelings.
Targeting actor Deepika Padukone for her costumes in Pathaan, BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra had hinted at a possible ban on the film in the State.
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Referring to the film’s recently released track Besharam Rang, Mr. Mishra — who is the official spokesperson for the State government and has often taken aim at various films and filmmakers for what he considers “objectionable content” in the past — had demanded that such “visuals be corrected”.
“The outfits that have been worn in the song are prima facie highly objectionable. It is clear that polluted minds are behind filming this song. In any case, Deepika ji has been a supporter of the tukde-tukde gang in the JNU [Jawaharlal Nehru University] incident. That is why I would like to request that they should correct the visuals of the song, correct the costumes, or else the permission to release this film in MP should be given or not is a thinkable question,” Mr. Mishra had told journalists.
Earlier in 2017, a BJP legislator from Goshamahal, Raja Singh, had threatened to burn down theatres if Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Hindi movie Padmavat was released in Telangana. A senior BJP leader had also demanded a ban on Kedarnath, a film set against the backdrop of a deluge that hit the Himalayan shrine in 2013, alleging that it hurts the sentiments of Hindus and promotes interfaith marriages.
