Contrary to BJP leader’s claim, Bhushan Kumar denies attending CAA meeting with government

A meeting between the representatives of the Hindi film industry and Piyush Goyal, union minister for railways and commerce & industry, took place on Sunday, 5 January, in Mumbai. The supposed aim of the meeting was to nullify doubts regarding the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the government of India. 

As per a report in the news agency Press Trust of India (PTI), the meeting was attended by actor Ranvir Shorey, lyricist Prasoon Joshi, also the head of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), actresses Urvashi Rautela and Tanisha Mukerji, director Anil Sharma, producers Bhushan Kumar and Ritesh Sidhwani, singer Shaan, composers Anu Malik and Roop Kumar Rathod. 

However, Bhusham Kumar has denied attending any such meeting. When he was asked about it during the trailer launch of his film Malang yesterday, he said, "I was in Grand Hayatt [the venue where the meeting took place]. So, that doesn’t mean I was in a meeting or something."

Interestingly, BJP leader and producer Tarun Rathi has thanked a number of people from the industry for attending the meet in a Twitter post which also includes Kumar. But the producer is nowhere to be seen in the pictures shared by him.

Kumar's denial of attending the meet despite being at the same venue comes on the heels of an increasing divided stand of the film industry on CAA and NRC.