The premiere on August 11 of the Indian adaptation of the famous American film Forrest Gump by Robert Zemeckis (1994), Laal Singh Chaddha- directed in Hindi by Advait Chandan, it is one of the most anticipated film events in India in 2022, thanks to the production and performance of the Muslim Aamir Khan.
successful indian actor 3 idiots (2009) and Dangal (2016) is, at 57, one of the most profitable in Bollywood.
But excerpts from an interview he gave in 2015 suddenly resurfaced on social media, prompting a spate of calls to boycott his film from Hindu nationalists.
#BoycottLaalSinghChaddha
In this interview, Aamir Khan had expressed his discomfort and a growing “sense of fear”, aroused by the coming to power of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the BJP, to the point that with his then wife they had considered leaving the India.
“He is afraid for his son. He is afraid of what the atmosphere around us will be like. He is afraid to open the newspapers every day,” she said at the time.
Over 200,000 tweets, many from BJP supporters, tagged #BoycottLaalSinghChaddhahave been spilling onto the social network since last month.
“Aamir Khan married two Hindu women and yet he named his children Junaid, Azad and Ira”, Muslim names, can be read in a tweet.
The actress who plays alongside him in Laal Singh ChaddhaKareena Kapoor, “married a Muslim and quickly named her sons Taimur and Jehangir,” we also noted in the same tweet, adding: “This is reason enough to boycott Lal Singh Chaddha, produced by Bollywood’s Love Jihad club. # BoycottLaalSinghChaddha”. .
“Love Jihad” is a pejorative phrase created by Hindu nationalists that stigmatizes Muslims by accusing them of marrying Hindus to convert them to Islam.
“I hate Muslims”
The BJP traces its origins to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a small militarist group that advocates “Hindutva,” a project for Hindu hegemony.
The fury aroused by the release of Laal Singh Chaddha It is such that Aamir Khan had to express his patriotism in the press this week, a key concept in the government’s ideology.
“It makes me sad that some … think I’m someone who doesn’t like India. I don’t,” he said, “please don’t boycott my movie. Please go see my movie.”
Bollywood cinema and other regional industries often generate controversy and even violence in film-loving India. But what Aamir Khan, one of the industry’s many Muslim superstars, is going through reflects the growing climate of intolerance, marginalization and defamation of Muslims that is evidently worrying observers.
“There is no doubt that Aamir is the target of those who spread hatred towards Muslims,” an observer who requested anonymity told AFP for fear of becoming a target himself.
“Most of Bollywood is apathetic”
The world’s largest democracy has a long history of film censorship, but rights advocates say Bollywood is also under increased pressure to adapt to the BJP’s Hindu nationalist propaganda.
More and more recently released films tell patriotic stories whose heroes are soldiers and policemen, usually Hindu, who fight against India’s enemies, at home or abroad.
This year the movie The Kashmir Archivesabout the historic flight of Hindus from Kashmir 30 years ago, has provided the Hindu nationalists who cheer it with a pretext to attack the Muslim minority.
The methods used to “subordinate Muslims and Christians in India to the majority community (…) go through the demonization of these minorities and the demand for proof of their patriotism,” explains film critic and writer Anna MM Veticad .
And, according to her, “the tragedy of India is that the majority of Bollywood (…) is either apathetic, or opportunistic, or afraid.”
Source: BFM TV
