SRK v/s shivsena muthalik

In the Shah Rukh Khan-Shiv Sena standoff the heroism is not as heroic and villainy not as villainous as some in the media are projecting.

Khan “standing up” to the Sena is as much a broadcast media driven narrative as Bal Thackeray’s “threats and intimidation.” At its core it is nothing more than a fading 84-year-old rabble rouser’s personal need for attention and losing battle to burnish a very thin legacy. It must not be a happy thought for Thackeray that 44 years after he founded it the Shiv Sena’s single-point strategy has not evolved beyond street-level goon politics to mine some nuisance value.

Bashing up a few bystanders, tearing down a few posters, ransacking a few offices and pushing around defenceless citizenry to extract donations have pretty much been the extent of the Sena’s political vision for as long as it can be traced. In many ways the Shiv Sena is nothing more than Thackeray’s own unsubstantiated grand view of the self which became an anachronism not too long after it was formed.

Like all family owned and run quasi-political outfits around the world, the Shiv Sena too is swift at plucking low-hanging fruits and beat them into some quick political pulp. With his own nephew Raj having ditched him and son Uddhav not politically adding up to a whole lot, the patriarch did not have much option but to pull out an old trick or two.

There was no way the Sena could have passed up on Khan’s somewhat Boy Scout worldview, especially the way it was expressed in the context of the Thackeray’s favorite target – Pakistan. The Sena’s 486 processor could not have executed a more complex task than ‘Shah Rukh Khan who is a Muslim star who is releasing a movie ‘My Name is Khan’ and loves Pakistani cricketers; so get him.’

While some sections of the breathless broadcast media are applauding Khan’s “extraordinary courage” in taking on Thackeray, a more sober appraisal would reveal nothing of the kind. The 44-year-old Khan has merely stood his ground in defence of his very reasonable and amiable take on the controversy over the failure of T20 cricket team owners to bid for a single Pakistani player. It is a sign of the times that something as routine as expressing one’s beliefs and sticking to them is being spun as an act of courage under fire. It is true that the Thackerays and the Sena did hold out some fairly equivocal threats in case Khan did not retract his stand on the Pakistani cricketers. However, veteran Sena watchers would see nothing more than posturing in this move.

At the personal level Thackeray had long been known to get a kick out of movie stars dropping by at his residence ‘Matoshri’ in the neighborhood that is ironically called ‘Kala Nagar.’ In some ways such visits fueled his sense of grandiosity and reinforced his image for his followers. The kind of implied intimidation that has been used in the current instance has more often than been only a tactic to get the targeted celebrities to come and pay their respects. Placating “Balasahab” became a ritual that helped the Shiv Sena acquire a profile that was way out of sync with its real influence.

Had it not been for the past acts of violence, which were done either directly by the loosely structured Sena cadres or by their proxies, this brand of politics would have seemed like the kind of caricature that Bal Thackeray is so skilled at as a cartoonist of formidable talent. It would be a mistake to cast the latest Sena outbursts as part of some overarching political debate about foreign policy, national security, terror and India’s neighborhood. In the Sena’s collective mind it is far simpler than that. It is just a characteristically short-term tactic to stay relevant in a city that has all but turned its back on them. Also, it can be said with some levity that the fulminations mean nothing more than “Come and meet Balasahab.”

As for Khan, he would be the wiser were he not to fall for the wholly unconvincing media hype of courage under fire

A middle aged Ranbir Kapoor’s getting ready to play a 21 year old wayward youth, not knowing what it means to be a proper ‘Mumbaikar’…Ranbir Kapoor is in deep discussion with his director…which goes something like this…Ranbir Kapoor: “We can’t say this dialogue, has this been cleared by MNS? Can my character be called ‘Raj?’ Did we check with all the Thackerays??

Back to the present….which is tense…So despite the fact that there seems to be no perceptible threat to the Hindi film industry at large, its time that the Hindi film

fraternity stands up for their own…Especially when certain politically motivated individuals mix some comments to their own political agendas which could lead to a situation which could spiral into something akin to ‘dictatorship’… to a point where directors, writers and producers will have to line up to meet the ‘powers’ that be to get a ‘creative license’ which would permit them to make stories that would first meet the requirements of the ‘Sena(s)… So a scenario in the future, where film scripts will have to first go through the ‘Thackeray(s)’ of the city to meet their reel fate, is very much on the cards…

So yes SRK made a comment, yes he had an opinion, and yes we can react to it and yes…we may like or may not adhere to his views. And yes…others can say whatever they want to. But to resort to threats to damage property, to threaten that if someone holds a particular point of view then they deserve to be ‘dealt with’. Well its time for people to speak up…especially a fraternity which prides itself to call it an ‘industry’…if not now, then forever they will have to hold their
silence. A tightly gagged silence.

Of course it’s not yet calamity, its not as if they have destroyed theatres…well…they have not done it …’yet’. And perhaps it’s for this ‘yet’ that the industry needs to stand up for. Today ‘they’ will want you to be punished for ‘having favorable opinions towards a country’; tomorrow it could be anything…from growing a beard to wearing a mini skirt. So is Shah Rukh Khan being isolated for being what he is a ‘Khan’… a Muslim…or is he being isolated because the industry itself is scared enough of taking a stance against a body that prides itself on ‘goondaism’? Whatever it is…perhaps its time the Industry stopped changing Bombay to Mumbai to satisfy a few individuals…perhaps its time to know that sometimes its ok to say that ‘yes the film is about the 1993 riots’, if someone has a problem let them take the legal route…not the laathi route! Perhaps its time to tell a few individuals that Mumbai ‘kisike baap ki jagir nahi hain…it’s for every Indian and belongs to every Indian…who can have their own views and also have the basic democratic right to voice it, if they want to!

While social activists took to streets protesting against Shiv Sena's threat to the release of the Bollywood film, theaters and multiplexes are bowing to Sena threat and backing out from releasing the film.


The Shiv Sena Bhawan on Thursday, Feb 11 turned into a battleground when pro-SRK activists and Sena activists clashed prompting the police into action.

Social activists staged a massive protest and shouted slogans outside the Sena Bhawan demanding a smooth release of the film. The protesters were taken into preventive custody and were later released.

According to a Zee News report, the social activists were led by the famous journalist and activist Teesta Setalvad.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai police arrested 295 Shiv Sena activists as the Bal Thackeray-led party reiterated the threat to the Shahrukh Khan starrer movie. Over 1,600 Sainiks have already been arrested.

Even as the police stepped up security across the city to thwart any threat to the theaters screening the film, multiplexes such as Fun, Adlabs have reportedly backed out from releasing the film on Friday, Feb 12.

The raging spat started when Sena took offence to the Bollywood superstar favouring the participation of Pakistan cricketers in the Indian Premier League (IPL).

As theatre-owners in Mumbai faced huge pressure from the Shiv Sena to bring down posters of Shah Rukh Khan's film, Amitabh Bachchan blogged lavish praise for Bal Thackeray.

His wife, Jaya Bachchan, in an exclusive interview to NDTV, said Bollywood comes together for "national causes". She was replying to a question on why Bollywood and her own family has not supported Shah Rukh against the Sena. Shah Rukh's statement that Pakistani players should be a part of the Indian Premier League has angered the Shiv Sena.

"I had my battle. I fought it single-handedly with the support of my family," said Bachchan, referring to her own run-in with Raj Thackeray and his party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), in 2008. At a Bollywood event, Jaya Bachchan had said that because she is from Uttar Pradesh, she wanted to speak in Hindi.

MNS workers attacked a cinema where Amitabh Bachchan's film, The Last Lear, was meant to premiere. Amitabh Bachchan issued a formal apology after an explanation on his blog was rejected by Thackeray.

Even while accepting Bachchan's apology, an aggressive Thackeray said Jaya Bachchan should stick to delivering dialogue written for her, instead of extemporising.

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Ashok Chavan, has said that "Strict action will be taken against anyone who tries to disrupt screening of Shah Rukh Khan's film 'My Name Is Khan'."

The Congress was also in power when Bachchan was threatened by the MNS. Pointing out that no such support was offered to her, Bachchan said, on the issue of North Indians being attacked in Mumbai, "It's very unfortunate that today the government is talking about it, they are posturing differently. When something starts, if you think it's wrong, it should be squashed then. But you did not make an effort, because at that time it did not suit you."