Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap has appreciated Congress president Rahul Gandhi's comment on freedom of expression as a fundamental democratic right, in the context of the filmmaker's web-series Sacred Games. However, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar has questioned the politician.
Netflix's Sacred Games, produced by the Anil Ambani-led Reliance Entertainment's Phantom Films joint venture, is facing a legal petition over the removal of certain content from the web-series on the grounds of insulting Rajiv Gandhi.
Breaking his silence over the issue, Rahul Gandhi had on Saturday (14 July) tweeted, "BJP/RSS believe the freedom of expression must be policed and controlled. I believe this freedom is a fundamental democratic right."
"My father lived and died in the service of India. The views of a character on a fictional web series can never change that," he added.
To that, Kashyap, who has directed the show with Vikramaditya Motwane, wrote, "That's a yay..."
The filmmaker's Indu Sarkar (2017) faced the heat from Congress supporters who conjectured the film was an attempt to portray former prime minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi in a negative light.
As for Sacred Games, it is based on author Vikram Chandra's eponymous novel. The show has references to the Emergency imposed by the Indira Gandhi government, as well as the Bofors scandal and the Shah Bano case that created a storm during Rajiv Gandhi's tenure as prime minister.
Largely, the film industry, audience and even international media has given a thumbs up to the show, which has Saif Ali Khan, Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Radhika Apte in pivotal roles.