BJP govt trying to divide film industry: Akhilesh
Films are a mode of entertainment but the BJP government is making it a political tool, alleged Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in a tweet
Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav on Friday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of attempting to divide the film industry. Akhilesh made the attack a day after the U.P. government led by chief minister Yogi Adityanath held an interactive session with film personalities at the roadshow held by the government in Mumbai in the run-up to the Global Investors Summit-2023 scheduled in Lucknow next month.
Although Akhilesh did not specify any context of the tweet he made in Hindi, he wrote: “The films are a mode of entertainment but the BJP government is making it a political tool. Not just the subject matters of films but also the BJP’s sword of hatred that spreads ‘fear and distrust’ is attempting to divide film industry. Meaningful cinema brings in hope and change but the BJP does not want this.”
A day earlier, some film personalities had raised the issue and trends against Bollywood at the film fraternity session. Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty had urged the U.P. chief minister to help erase hatred against the Hindi film industry and get rid of the ‘Boycott Bollywood’ trend on social media.
Besides Shetty, Subhash Ghai, Jackie Shroff, Rajkumar Santoshi, Manmohan Shetty, Boney Kapoor, Sonu Nigam, Kailash Kher, Jackky Bhagnani, Rajpal Yadav, Ravi Kishan (Gorakhpur MP), Dinesh Yadav ‘Nirhua’ (Azamgarh MP), Ashish Singh, Tej Kiran, Chandraprakash Dwivedi and several other film personalities had attended the session.
The Boycott Bollywood hashtag first started trending following actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise in June 2020 which ignited discussions on the nepotistic nature of the industry and the gate-keeping attitude of top banners. Since then, several films such as “Laal Singh Chaddha”, “Raksha Bandhan”, “Dobaaraa”, “Liger”, “Brahmastra: Part One – Shiva” faced the BoycottBollywood trend. Opposition parties have often accused ‘right wingers’ of being behind the boycott trend.