ACTOR RAZA Murad said he was receiving threatening calls after he lend his voice to the documentary on Parliament attack on December 13. He made this disclosure during an interaction with newspersons at the City Club here on Friday. Following the fidayeen attack on Parliament, a news channel had approached him to provide his voice for the documentary.
ACTOR RAZA Murad said he was receiving threatening calls after he lend his voice to the documentary on Parliament attack on December 13.
HT Image
He made this disclosure during an interaction with newspersons at the City Club here on Friday. Following the fidayeen attack on Parliament, a news channel had approached him to provide his voice for the documentary.
“I agreed instantly and never charged a single penny for the voice over,” said Murad. Once the documentary was relayed, he received a number of threatening calls. “Every caller told me that I had done a wrong thing,” he recalled.
He, however, opposed the clemency being sought for Parliament attack accused Afzal Guru. “The Supreme Court has given a right verdict and the mercy demand was totally wrong,” he said.
He even blasted J&K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and other politicians for pleading his case. He said if Pakistan wanted Afzal’s hanging to be canceled then it should have responded when India had made a similar demand for Sarabjeet.
On Bollywood-mafia nexus, Murad was candid.
The film industry was captured after mafia started operating from overseas. He said some film personalities mantained relations with the underworld out of compulsion. And some went ahead to get benefits.
“When I joined the industry there were mafia like Haji Mastan and Vardharajan. They had a healthy relationship with film stars. Their men never came calling for ‘petis’ and ‘khokas’. In fact they used to felicitate film personalities,” he said.
The later generation of dons made Bollywood a happy hunting ground. The film stars going abroad had to bow to their diktats as the government could not provide security everywhere.
“Yet there are film stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra who never allowed the mafia to dictate terms to them. But starlets like Monica Bedi used the mafia connection to win stardom and is now paying heavily,” Murad said.
Coming down on the new crop of stars, he said, “ They are more than willing to cross every limits to make a fast buck. This comes in handy for the mafia to spread tentacles”.
The actor, who has worked in more than 400 films, was looking forward to his upcoming film ‘Akbar-Jodha’ starring Hrithik and Aishwarya.