Bollywood bigwigs meet Advani

Bollywood bigwigs meet Advani
UNITED NEWS OF INDIA

NEW DELHI, FEBRUARY 1: Terrorised by increasing cases of extortion and attacks on film personalities, several senior film industry leaders on Tuesday urged Home Minister L K Advani to take immediate steps to nab the culprits behind these crimes.

The leaders representing different film bodies met Advani on Tuesday morning and presented him a memorandum in which they also referred to cases which had so far not been solved, like that of the killing of music audio magnate Gulshan Kumar more than two years ago.

Those who met Advani included senior filmmaker Yash Chopra, Member of Parliament Shatrughan Sinha, Pahlaj Nihalani who represents the Filmmmakers Combine, Manmohan Shetty representing cine workers, and television and film producer Amit Khanna. Home Secretary Kamal Pande was also present.

Khanna later told newspersons that the Home Minister had given a patient hearing and they were hopeful of early action by the Centre to curb the anti-social elements and criminals terrorising the filmindustry.

Khanna said that the film industry, already plagued by problems like irrational taxation and video piracy, was now under a new threat from extortionists who resorted to violence if they were not paid. He referred to the recent attack on filmmaker and actor Rakesh Roshan, whose film Kaho na pyaar hai with his son, debutante Hrithik, is currently running to full houses. Roshan, son of late music director Roshan and brother of maestro Rajesh Roshan, survived the attack though he was injured and had to be hospitalised.

Denying allegations about a nexus between the film industry and the underworld, Khanna said this was a bogey created by the media but added that a profession could not be painted black just because there were some black sheep in it. He said Indian cinema had been recognised as a prime source of entertainment and therefore it was necessary to safeguard its future. Describing Indian cinema as a `sunrise industry', he said Indian filmmakers had made their mark all over theworld.

When asked about the controversy surrounding filmmaker Deepa Mehta's Water, he said the industry had expressed its solidarity with her though he admitted that he had not met her so far to understand the real problem. Shatrughan Sinha said that he was of the firm view that filmmakers should be very careful when dealing with themes that have communal overtones. However, he also admitted that he was not fully conversant with the issue created by Deepa's attempts to shoot her film in Varanasi.