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Veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar and director Mahesh Bhatt addressed criticism of the Modi government and rising Islamophobia in India, and the situation in Kashmir post the abrogation of Article 370 on a recent appearance on the Al Jazeera show UpFront.
In a teaser clip shared by journalist Mehdi Hasan, Javed Akhtar was asked whether he considered Narendra Modi a facist. To which he replied,
When asked about the rising anti-Muslim sentiment in India, Mahesh Bhatt said he felt it was being "manufactured", helped in part by a "pliable" media.
Javed Akhtar and Mahesh Bhatt are among the handful of Bollywood celebrities who have come out strongly against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and condemned incidents of police violence against anti-CAA protesters, especially students of Jamia Millia Islamia University, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Aligarh Muslim University.
When asked by Hasan why Bollywood either appears to side with Modi or refuses to criticise him, Bhatt said that fear prevents them from voicing their true opinion. "They feel very vulnerable, but the explosive silence speaks for itself, that these people are frightened to speak their minds, even if they feel completely different to what they are posturing privately," he said.
While Akhtar agreed, he also said that Bollywood's influence is "highly exaggerated".
Bhatt added, "On the ground, I think there are other more serious things which ultimately decide which particular party will rule us. And filmmakers or actors and actresses ... have a very limited role to play in creating the atmospherics."
Watch the full interview here:
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