Earlier on 5 October, 29 activists were arrested for protesting against the felling of trees in Aarey Colony in Mumbai. The arrested have been sent to judicial custody by a Borivali court. The decision to cut 2,600 trees was made to accommodate the construction of the metro car shed. Naturally, much of Mumbai, including the film industry, has taken to social media to voice its resistance.
In light of such reactions, many Twitter users are asking to #ShutDownFilmCity, claiming that Film City also encroaches the Aarey forest area. Users are claiming that Bollywood is equally responsible for the destruction of Aarey forest by using words like “hypocrite”. Some have even suggested moving Film City to farther areas of Mumbai Metropolitan Region. A majority of those calling for action against Film city associate with right wing ideologies.
On Saturday, Varun Dhawan took to Twitter to call the Aarey forest felling “heartbreaking news”. He wrote, “This is heartbreaking news. With such an outcry to stop the cutting of trees why is this being allowed mumbai has done enough for the people in power to realise cutting down aarey is something the citizens don’t want.”
To which a Twitter user responded with a graphic of Film City’s encroachment of Aarey forest. Varun then replied, “This is also most definitely wrong but what wrong has been done in the past doesn’t need to be repeated. Its not a blame game Dalvi Saab. Lets do what’s right now.”
Here’s what some other netizens are saying:
Many Bollywood celebs like Karan Johar, Alia Bhatt, Swara Bhasker, and Dia Mirza have taken to Twitter to protest against the felling. Karan Johar called it a “massacre” and Swara Bhasket tweeted “Shame”.
Take a look:
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