Anubhav Sinha, Taapsee Pannu, Anurag Kashyap raise their voices against growing violence against students 

The protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) which escalated with student protests at the Jamia Milia University in New Delhi, as well as cities across India, saw support incoming from several Hindi film actors, actresses and filmmaker. Whether it was director Mahesh Bhatt taking part in a protest meeting to Taapsee Pannu and Ali Fazal taking to social media to speak up about the issue, the protests have certainly caught their eye. 

The protests have particularly proved violent at the Jamia Milia University, with the police entering the campus, and launching into a street fight with the students. 

Taapsee Pannu shared a video of a student on the campus speaking of her reason for standing up and opposing the police action. Taapsee wrote 'Wonder if this is a start or the end. Whatever it is, this is surely writing new rules of the land and those who don’t fit in can very well see the consequences.' 

Article 15 (2015) director Anubhav Sinha was quite unsparing in his call to support the students, calling on 'Icons' from all fields to step out in support. He wrote 'Dear Icons! Films. Sports. Arts. Politics. Literature.  Etc. We chose what we chose because most of us didn’t want to be Government  servants.' 

Actress Swara Bhasker was also among the many who criticised the Delhi police' action against the protesting students. 

Article 15  actress Sayani Gupta and Sacred Games actress Kubbra Sait also questioned the actions of the Delhi police and the government. 

Composer Vishal Dadlani has never minced words against the government, and was again scathing on the nature of the violence unleashed on the protestors. 

Another voice of anger came from Anurag Kashyap. The director recently gave an interview to the online portal The Quint saying, "My instant reaction to it is why and how and it’s not going to stop. We have voted for it, we should keep getting it. We will keep getting it. I’ve like literally switched off, I do not endorse anything. Either you get into it the whole hog or just let it be." 

However, post the violent street fight between the police and the students, the director seemed to have changed his tack. He wrote on his social media saying, 'This has gone too far...can't stay silent any longer...' 

Actress-director Pooja Bhatt seemed to share the same sentiments as she wrote a similar post on her handle. 

Bhatt's father, filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt was part of a protest meet in Mumbai against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), and posted a video explaining his stand against it. 

While there has been a steady silence from the top echelons of the industry, there is a growing number of actors, actresses and filmmakers stepping out in support of the students. 

The only superstar to be dragged into conversation has been Akshay Kumar, who 'accidentally' liked a tweet calling the police action a 'freedom' for the Jamia Milia University. The actor soon put out a tweet to apologise for it. 

Ali Fazal, Avinash Tiwary, Richa Chadha and Siddharth were among the many speaking up. 

An alumnus of the university, director Onir left people in no doubt about his support to the students. 

Chhapaak (2020) actor Vikrant Massey also joined the growing movement as he shared a picture calling it the 'fight to regain the lost sanity of this country.'

This is a picture of students from #JamiaMilia holding photos of #Ambedkar & #Gandhi opposing the #CAA2019

We haven’t forgotten our roots.

And we will fight to regain the lost sanity of this proud country 🇮🇳 #StandWithJamia #Delhiviolence pic.twitter.com/gOCh0B7Cnw

— Vikrant Massey (@masseysahib) December 15, 2019