Raj Thackeray Opposes the Screening of Pakistani Film with Fawad Khan in Maharashtra
Raj Thackeray, the president of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), has once again raised his protests against the release of a Pakistani film in India. This time, it is the turn of Fawad Khan’s film The Legend of Maula Jatt with which he objects. Thackeray in a statement has warned theater owners of Maharashtra not to screen the movie and threatened to take action if they go ahead with screening. The elder Thackeray’s remarks have been raising the debate over cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan that have been at loggerheads since the 2016 Uri attack.
Warning from Raj Thackeray
In a Marathi tweet, Raj Thackeray categorically rejected the release of The Legend of Maula Jatt, a Pakistani film starring Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan. “The MNS will not permit the movie to hit the theatres in Maharashtra at any cost,” he wrote. “Art has no borders,” Thackeray argued, “in other ways, not when Pakistani actors feature in the frames.”.
Now he also questions the reason why Pakistani actors’ films are being released in India, where those two countries do not get along. Now this clarification regarding the action against the theater owners who are planning to host the show was rather a reminder of other incidents where MNS protested for similar release.
Cultural Exchange and Political Tensions
The controversy over The Legend of Maula Jatt also connects to the controversy over whether Pakistani artists should be a feature of Indian cinema. Fawad and Mahira Khan are such celebrated actors with so much fame in India, but their connection with the Pakistani cinema and the political friction between India and Pakistan makes their films contentious.
Asserting that governments must stop the release of Pakistani movies in India and not only in Maharashtra, the MNS chief rightly said this has been the party’s stand on, a long-standing denial of work permit in India to Pakistani artists, since the 2016 terror attack in Uri, Jammu, and Kashmir.
Past Incidents and MNS’s History of Protests
Raj Thackeray has reminded all with the warning that the MNS has a record of disrupting functions associated with Pakistani artists and film personalities. The party has taken objection, on many occasions, to the release of films in which Pakistani actors figured.
Most controversial was when in 2016 MNS protested on the release of a Bollywood movie, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, that had Fawad Khan. Then, theater owners faced threats and MNS demanded that Indian filmmakers should stop taking Pakistani actors. Protests ended only after a stipulated donation by filmmakers to the Indian Army and reenacting appreciation for Indian soldiers.
Thackeray’s latest statement indicates that MNS will not think twice before doing the same thing if theaters across Maharashtra decide to screen The Legend of Maula Jatt. “Everyone will remember what MNS did when such incidents happened before, said Thackeray.
Impact on Theater Owners and the Film Industry
The Thackeray warning is directly addressed to theater owners, not allowing them to screen the film as it is scheduled for release. The MNS chief told that he doesn’t want any controversies to brew up, especially as Maharashtra is readying up for Navratri festival. “I don’t want any conflict to happen in Maharashtra. The same will not be the desire of the Chief Minister, Home Minister, and Director General of Police of the state,” he added.
While it is going to be the first Pakistani film releasing in India after a decade, the threat of protests and disruptions could deter the theater owners from screening it. The film released last year, 2022, in Pakistan, where it reportedly became a super hit raking over Rs 400 crore at the global box office. Zee Studios will produce its Indian release in association with the channel Zindagi, but this too might suffer impact from MNS backlashes on distribution.
A Deeper Political Perspective
It forms a part of a much larger political and cultural debate in India. Even after the Uri attack in 2016, there was a mass call for a ban on Pakistani artists working in Indian cinema. The Federation of Western India Cine Employees had already banned them, and no Pakistani artist has worked in Bollywood since.
This notwithstanding, Pakistani films like Bol, starring Atif Aslam and Humaima Malick, had already been striking a chord across in India when released back in 2011. The political landscape has changed though and it has become tougher to have such inter-cultural exchanges. Indian Supreme Court was even compelled to take a call on this issue. Yet, in February 2022, it rejected a plea seeking a blanket ban on Pakistani artists, contending that it was a central subject.
Future cross-border cultural exchanges
While the controversy over the Pakistani artiste ban has not abated, The Legend of Maula Jatt might just reignite the debate in India over cross-border cultural exchange. Advocates of art freedom say that political tensions are no reason to hold arts and films hostage. Critics say that cross-border cultural exchange should be stopped until something improves in between the two countries.
The film and the threats against theater owners from Raj Thackeray graphically illustrate the tensions involved in balancing artistic freedom with political sensitivities. But the question remains whether the theaters of Maharashtra will heed his warning or whether The Legend of Maula Jatt will become yet another flashpoint for another round of protests and disruptions.
Conclusion
Right from the word go, the fact that Raj Thackeray has been adamant in opposition against the release of The Legend of Maula Jatt in Maharashtra has portrayed the deep political tensions related to cross-border cultural exchanges between India and Pakistan. Aggressive protests by MNS combined with threats towards theater owners have left the release of the movie in shambles. So, while that controversy hangs over the head of The Legend of Maula Jatt as it approaches its release date during the Navratri festival, the bigger question that has kept its resolution pending is about whether Pakistani films and artists should or shouldn’t be allowed into India. Only time will tell whether it will be incident-free or the spark for another raging controversy.
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