Left-liberal journalists are an incredibly fickle breed. The entire premise of their journalism career is based on the communalism and division of society. While the majority of the lot tends to preach sermons of secularism to the public, they sure do have a tender spot for Muslims – the supposed oppressed minority of the country, which is mollycoddled incessantly by them.
However, director Rohit Shetty, currently on the press tour of his newest release Sooryavanshi starring Akshay Kumar, Ranveer Singh, and Ajay Devgn took a Quint journalist to the cleaners for her obvious and inherent bias and an attempt to create sensational controversy.
Reportedly, during the press junket, a Quint journalist named Abira Dhar questioned Shetty regarding the perennial, stale question of good-Muslim and bad-Muslim.
She asked, “There has been a few pointers put out criticizing the good Muslim and bad Muslim concept. So in the film, we have seen how Muslims have been portrayed in a good and a bad way. But it is seen to be problematic, in a sense that..”
Our previous three movies had bad Hindus, why wasn’t it a problem?: Rohit Shetty
Sensing where the reporter was trying to lead him, Shetty cut her short and remarked, “If I ask you one question… Jaikant Shikre (in Singham) was a Hindu Marathi. Then a second film came where a Hindu godman was there. Then in Simba, Durva Ranade was a Maharashtrian again. In these three, negative forces were Hindu, why isn’t that a problem?”
Response given by Rohit Shetty to Quint journalist over allegations of #Islamophobia in#Sooryavanashi is commendable.
— Shashank Shekhar Jha (@shashank_ssj) November 14, 2021
To which the Quint journalist, seemingly at a loss of words, replied, “No, my problem is not that, it’s just the way they have been portrayed, the good and the bad…”
It changed my perception about some journalists: Shetty
However, Shetty shut her for good this time by giving another example and simultaneously taking a jibe at the ilk of such journalists, “If there is a terrorist who is from Pakistan, what caste will he be? We are not talking about the caste. It changed my point of view of a few journalists whom I used to like. That oh, they are portraying it like I have seen in brackets somebody writing bad Muslims being preached by upper-caste Hindus, which is very wrong. We never thought that way.”
He further added, “When our conscious is clear, and we did not think that way, why are people talking about it? If we have a sleeper cell that we are talking about, what caste that sleeper cell would be? Why is the good or bad person being linked to his caste? If it was wrong, everybody would have objected. It is not the point of view of everyone but only a small segment. If they are objecting, it is them who need to change the perspective and not us.”
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Shut down the police for a day and see what happens: Shetty
After the reporter did not have her fill with juicy answers, she tried to ratchet one more controversy by remarking, “We have seen Sooryavanshi, Simba where the police is going through the path and doing the things they are not supposed to do, like an encounter. What do you have to say about the representation of cops in your films?”
Shetty calmly replied, “Most of our sequences, of course except the climax, have originated from the real-life stories. They [Police] do not publicize what they are doing on a daily basis as we do. There are a lot of incidents that do not make it to the eye of the Public.”
“Whoever asks me about my viewpoint on Police brutality, I only ask them to shut down Police headquarters for one day. You dial 100, and there is no one to answer.”
Hindus are repeatedly shown in a bad light, no one bats an eye
While Dhar remained aloof from reality, the truth is that Bollywood throughout the years has depicted Hindus in an extremely bad light.
As reported by TFI, recently, a film titled ‘Jai Bhim’ starring Actor Surya, released on Amazon Prime found itself in hot waters for its controversial take on the villains.
The movie, supposedly based on real-life events of 1990 where a lawyer fought to get justice for a tribal woman conveniently changes the script and shows the Vanniyar community as the villain. The police SI, the main villain in the movie, belongs to the Vanniyar community.
In another scene, a photograph of the Vanniyar community’s iconic motif ‘fire’ is seen in the background in a frame featuring the police officer.
However, in reality, the sub-inspector who framed the Irular men and thrashed them was one ‘Anthony Sami’, and as the name suggests he was not from the Vanniyar community.
Sherni and Hindu villains
Similarly, in June, earlier this year, Amazon Prime’s another release titled ‘Sherni’ starring Vidya Balan did just the same.
The movie was essentially based on Tigress Avni who had turned into a maneater and was recorded to have mauled 14 people to death.
However, the hunter named Asghar Ali Khan who actually killed Avni was conveniently turned into kalawa-wearing Ranjan Rajhans aka Pintu Bhaiya while, Vidya Balan, whose character is loosely based on the real-life character of Bindi-wearing IFS officer KM Abharna was given a Christian name and identity – Vidya “Vincent”.
It is interesting to note that nearly all the forest department officials, who just so happen to be Hindu, were shown as corrupt and deceitful except one man named Hassan Noorani.
The movie goes to great lengths to portray that Hindu officers were simply incapable and apathetic in doing their jobs, sometimes not even fit to continue in the office.
Read More: Sherni movie: Real Muslim hunter becomes reel Hindu. Real forest officer becomes reel Christian
However, in none of the aforementioned cases, propaganda portals like the Quint or its yellow-page journalists like Dhar bothered to raise the question of Bad Hindu-Good Hindu. It shows their partisan behaviour and it bodes well on Shetty’s part that instead of being politically correct, he took the onus upon himself to set the crooked journalist straight.