Star wars in Indian cinemas over Pakistani actors

Patriotism beats art as Diwali blockbuster is banned because it stars a Pakistani actor.

Pakistani actor Fawad Khan Actor, star of the new Indian blockbuster which will not be shown in independent cinemas in four India states. Jeff Topping / The National

India’s large, lucrative Hindi film industry finds itself divided on the question of art versus patriotism, with sections of Bollywood declaring Pakistani artistes unwelcome in protest at their country’s sponsorship of cross-border terrorism in Kashmir.

In the latest move, an association of more than 400 cinema theatre owners in Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Gujarat states announced on Friday that it would stop screening movies featuring Pakistani actors.

The boycott will affect the fortunes of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, a big-budget film from director Karan Johar and starring the Pakistani heart-throb Fawad Khan. The movie is scheduled for release on October 28, in time for the Diwali festival.

“We have nothing against Karan Johar,” said Nitin Datar, president of the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India (COEAI). “It’s just that we won’t allow the release of any film which will have Pakistani actors or technicians in it.”

The January release of the film Raees, starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, will also be affected if the boycott continues.

“We can’t say we are banning these films,” Mr Datar said. “It’s just that we are suspending all these films. In future, if [India’s] relationship with Pakistan gets better, we will work towards it. But looking at the current scenario, we have to take this decision.”

The Indian government has so far "not revised its policy of issuing work visas to Pakistani artistes, nor is there any proposal yet to revoke the work visas already issued to them," a government official told the Times of India newspaper on Friday.

The COEAI boycott is the latest in a series of announcements from Bollywood to emphasise the industry’s solidarity with the Indian army and its unwillingness to work with Pakistanis.

India’s ever-tense relationship with Pakistan has been particularly fraught since September 18, when four militants attacked an Indian military base in Kashmir, killing 19 soldiers. India insisted that Pakistan knew in advance about the attack and even abetted it.

Eleven days later – hours after the Indian army announced a series of pre-emptive strikes on militant bases across the border in Pakistan-held Kashmir – the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association (IMPPA) passed a resolution banning Pakistani actors and technicians from working in Indian films.

By then, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), a Hindu fundamentalist party that is powerful in Bollywood’s citadel of Mumbai, had also issued a 48-hour ultimatum for Pakistani artistes to quit ongoing film projects.

“Actors like Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan are hijacking the opportunities of Indian artists,” said Shalini Thackeray, the general secretary of the MNS, which is known for its sprees of targeted violence.

“The army is fighting for the country,” she said. “The country comes first, and the film industry needs to realise that everything is not normal. There is tension between the two countries and people do not want to see Pakistani artistes on screen.”

Anuvab Pal, a scriptwriter, told The National that although similar boycotts had been demanded by political parties in the past, the current situation felt different.

“You have a bunch of soldiers who died in this terror attack,” Mr Pal said. “That always makes it more serious. In such a situation, no one wants to be seen as anti-India.”

The members of COEAI are largely owners of single-screen movie halls, rather than of multiplexes in malls, Mr Pal noted. Their theatres are likely to be in smaller towns, where a more conservative climate prevails.

“Also, if a mob takes it into its head to protest about a movie with a Pakistani actor by attacking one of these theatres, the owner will have to suffer the consequences,” he said. “If you own a multiplex in a mall, you don’t have to worry about security.”

The stance taken by COEAI and IMPPA has been bolstered by strong statements released by some of Bollywood’s biggest stars.

“You are an Indian first,” Ajay Devgn, one of the industry’s top actors, told a television channel on Wednesday. “There is an exchange of bullets happening and you’re talking about an exchange of culture. We cannot isolate ourselves from the nation.”

But several members of the film fraternity have criticised these boycotts as unfair.

“If the government says that not only actors but all Pakistanis who have come here for business or to meet their relatives – all must go back to their country, and their visas must be cancelled after three days, then I am with the government,” veteran actor Om Puri said in a statement on Friday. “Let the head of the country decide this and not us.”

Boycotting the release of movies also puts producers in a difficult position, Mr Pal said.

"A movie like Ae Dil Hai Mushkil would have started work three years ago, and Fawad Khan would have shot his scenes two years ago or maybe last year," he said. "How could Karan Johar have known what the country would look like three years down the line?"