MNS asks for total Bachchan blackout

MNS chief Raj Thackeray demands a boycott on films that have any of the Bachchans in them till Jaya Bachchan apologises for her 'anti-Marathi' remarks, reports Sayli U Mankikar.

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray on Monday demanded a boycott on films that have any of the Bachchans in them and said advertisement hoardings endorsed by the family must be blackened. He was responding to Jaya Bachchan's remarks on speaking in Hindi at an event on the weekend.

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While in Mumbai MNS activists pulled down posters of Amitabh Bachchan's The Last Lear outside the Hub mall in Goregaon and near Plaza cinema at Dadar, in Nashik mud was thrown at hoardings of Abhishek Bachchan endorsing a cellular phone service.

Thackeray said "the ban would be lifted" only after Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan apologises to Maharashtra for the remarks she made at a music release function on Saturday. She had said: "Hum toh Hindi mein bolna pasand karenge. Hum toh UPwale hain. Mumbaiwale humein maaf karein." (I would like to speak in Hindi as I am from UP. Mumbaikars please forgive me.)

"She has purposely made such statements. Even when she said forgive me, she had a cunning smile, like she was taking potshots at Maharashtrians," Thackeray said at a press conference at the MNS headquarters on Monday.

Abhishek Bachchan did not respond to the SMS sent by HT.