Since the passage of CAA in Parliament, the country has been witnessing protests in many places. Apart from opposition politicians, many liberals have joined the anti-CAA protests. Among these liberals are Bollywood celebrities, who have largely been anti-Modi and are seeking to leverage the anti-CAA protests to increase their following as they wilfully become the messengers of a massive misinformation campaign around the Citizenship Amendment Act.
The usual suspects like Farhan Akhtar and Swara Bhasker are leading the charge as is the case with anything that is even minutely anti-Modi. A video which has now gone viral shows how Farhan has no idea about the CAA and why has he joined the protest. Same is the case with most of the Bollywood stars who have just been following the orders of their PR managers and haven’t even attempted to read the bill in detail.
Now, the star cast of Rang De Basanti has also joined the bandwagon. Actors like Kunal Kapoor, Soha Ali Khan, Siddharth and Atul Kulkarni have publicly expressed their opposition to the CAA on Twitter. It will not be far-fetched to say that Rang De Basanti was the movie which propelled these 4 actors to stardom.
However, one intriguing factor about it is the silence from the lead actor Aamir Khan who essayed the role of Chandrashekhar Azad in the movie.
Rang De Basanti is a movie where the youth display their anti-government stand and protest by taking up arms and barging into a radio station. Siddharth Narayan who has been a vocal critic of PM Modi on every issue under the sun essayed the role of Bhagat Singh in the movie while Kunal Kapoor and Atul Kulkarni played the roles of Ashfaqullah Khan and Ram Prasad Bismil respectively. The movie also featured Sharman Joshi as Shivaram Rajguru.
The movie was critically acclaimed and also bagged the National Film Award for Best Popular Film. The movie was mired in controversy as Aamir in the weeks leading up to the film’s release joined the protest against the Sardar Sarovar Dam as he joined hands with the likes of Medha Patkar and the ilk. Aamir received a lot of flak to join the protest against the critical dam which would quench the thirst of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Recently, Aamir courted controversy for his intolerance comment as he claimed that there is a sense of growing intolerance in the country since 2014. Aamir was panned left, right and centre for his comment which forced Snapdeal to not renew Aamir’s contract as its brand ambassador.
While the Rang De Basanti actors are making their anti-govt stance clear however, Khan has been missing from the picture. It remains to be seen whether he comments anything on the CAA like his colleagues.