Right Wing groups protest against Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, one show cancelled in West Bengal

Hindutva groups held demonstrations against Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in a few cities of Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal on Friday. However, theatres continued to show the movie which released on the occasion of Dhanteras. The reason for opposition is that it features Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in one important role. 

Earlier in the month, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had given a call for banning Pakistani artistes working in Bollywood following a terrorist attack on an army camp in Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir in September.

Since the Karan Johar directorial features Khan, calls were made to ban Ae Dil Hai Mushkil also. However, the movie was okayed for release by MNS after Johar made an appeal to the people to not stall the release of the film and also agreed to donate Rs5 crore to an army welfare fund. 

But the Shiv Sena workers held a demonstration outside a cineplex at Tatya Tope Nagar in Bhopal. But their attempt to storm the theatre was foiled by the police. A Hindutva Right Wing group stopped the screening of the film in a multiplex for some time at Samdareeya Mall in Jabalpur. Similar groups held similar demonstrations in Gwalior and West Bengal too.

In WB’s Purulia district, Bajrang Dal activities staged a demonstration outside a cinema hall on Friday. Activists gathered in large numbers outside a Purulia-based multiplex right in the morning to protest against the screening of the film. The Bajrang Dal is the youth wing of Vishwa Hindu Parishad.

The protestors carried banners and flags of the Bajrang Dal, as well as the national flag and shouted slogans condemning the casting of Khan in an Indian film at a time of high tension between the neighbouring nations.

“The cinema management responded positively to our protest and decided to stop the first show of the movie,” Banjrag Dal-Kolkata said in a social media website, claiming their demonstration “a huge success.” 

About a hundred Bajrang Dal supporters gathered in front of the multiplex at around 9 am yesterday and held a protest for an hour. However, the police was alert to avert any untoward incident,” a senior officer of Purulia Police Control Room said. Police said the issue was resolved without much hassle and the film could be screened thereafter.

However, despite the miscreants’ antics, nobody was either arrested or detained. “No one was detained during the incident,” police said in a statement.