Introduction:
Political cinema in the narrow sense of the term refers to political films which do not hide their political stance. This does not mean that they are necessarily pure propaganda. The difference to other films is not that they are political but how they show it
Film can be a political tool, causing audiences to change their behavior, or influencing governments to alter policies. Cinema can be a part of bringing about social or cultural changes. Films don’t have to feature politicians or wars to be political; a documentary about a man eating nothing but McDonald’s for a month and a musical featuring Tim Curry singing and dancing, dressed in black lingerie have both had effects beyond the cinematic world.
Politics is concerned with the generation and distribution of power in a society and how we organize our social life together: issues of equity and justice, competing utopias and ideologies, programmers and manifestoes. The political life is one of maneuvering and intriguing, demonstrating and debating: fighting for a position of real, practical influence and control. Political narratives are directed and persuasive, lacking in ambiguity or subtlety. Action is taken with consequences that impact directly on everyday life. The artistic and political impulses are thus often seen as being in contradiction to one another.
Films can inspire us, anger us, excite us, shame us and scare us into change. In honor of Politics Week here are some examples of films that have made an impact (not always positively) long after the cinema lights went up.
Hollywood Cine-Politic Movies:
JFK:
On November 22, 1963, President John F. Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald is arrested for the crime and subsequently shot by Jack Ruby, supposedly avenging the president's death. An investigation concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Ruby acted alone in their respective crimes, but Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison is skeptical. Assembling a trusted group of people, Garrison conducts his own investigation, bringing about backlash from powerful government and political figures.
Political Effects of JFK:
The film's popularity led to the passage of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 (also known as the JFK Act) and the formation of the U.S. Assassination Records Review Board. The Act was signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in late October 1992. The ARRB worked until 1998. Witnesses were interviewed (some for the first time), including many medical witnesses, the U.S. government purchased the “Zapruder film”, and previously-classified documents relating to the assassination were finally made public. By ARRB law (of 1998), all existing assassination-related documents will be made public by 2017.
Persepolis:
Persepolis is a 2007 French-Iranian-American animated film based on Marjane Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novel of the same name. The film was written and directed by Satrapi with Vincent Paronnaud. The story follows a young girl as she comes of age against the backdrop of the Iranian Revolution. The title is a reference to the historic city of Persepolis.
The film was released in the United States on 25 December 2007 and in the United Kingdom on 24 April 2008.
International Government Reaction:
The film has drawn complaints from the Iranian government. Even before its debut at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the government-connected organization Iran Farabi Foundation sent a letter to the French embassy in Tehran stating, "This year the Cannes Film Festival, in an unconventional and unsuitable act, has chosen a movie about Iran that has presented an unrealistic face of the achievements and results of the glorious Islamic Revolution in some of its parts Despite such objections, the Iranian cultural authorities relented in February 2008 and allowed limited screenings of the film in Tehran, albeit with six scenes censored due to sexual content.[11]
In June 2007 in Thailand, the film was dropped from the lineup of the Bangkok International Film Festival. Festival director Chattan Kunjara na Ayudhya stated, "I was invited by the Iranian embassy to discuss the matter and we both came to mutual agreement that it would be beneficial to both countries if the film was not shown" and "It is a good movie in artistic terms, but we have to consider other issues that might arise here.
Persepolis was initially banned in Lebanon after some clerics found it to be "offensive to Iran and Islam". The ban was later revoked after an outcry in Lebanese intellectual and political circles.
Screening controversies:
On 7 October 2011, the film was shown on the Tunisian private television station Nessma. A day later a demonstration formed and marched on the station. The main Islamic party in Tunisia, Ennahda, condemned the demonstration. Nabil Karoui, the owner of Nessma TV, faced trial in Tunis on charges of “violating sacred values” and “disturbing the public order”. He was found guilty and ordered to pay a fine of 2,400 dinars ($1,700; £1,000), a much more lenient punishment than predicted. Amnesty International said that criminal proceedings against Karoui are an affront to freedom of expression.
In the United States, a group of parents from the Northshore School District, Washington, objected to adult content in the movie and graphic novel, and lobbied to discontinue it as part of the curriculum. The Curriculum Materials Adoption Committee felt that "other educational goals – such as that children should not be sheltered from what the board and staff called "disturbing" themes and content – outweighed the crudeness and parental prerogative.
The Road to Guantanamo:
The Road to Guantánamo, alternatively The Road to Guantanamo, is a British 2006 docudrama film directed by Michael Winterbottom and Mat Whitecross about the incarceration of three British citizens (the 'Tipton Three'), who were captured in 2001 in Afghanistan and detained by the United States there and for more than two years at the detainment camp in Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. It premiered at the Berlinale on 14 February 2006, and was first shown in the UK on Channel 4 on 9 March 2006.
Controversy:
Iranian authorities asked the film's distributor to release the film in Iran, which was unusual for a Western picture. According to the distributor's president, it ordered four prints instead of the usual one and offered three times the normal amount for fees. As of late April 2006, the film was awaiting official approval; it was expected to be released in late May.
Actors Detained:
Four of the actors in the film were detained for about an hour by police at London Luton Airport after returning from the film's premiere in Berlin. Rizwan Ahmed alleged that during questioning, police asked him whether he had become an actor to further the Islamic cause, questioned him on his views of the Iraq war, verbally abused him, and denied him access to a telephone. The police tried to recruit him as an informant.
A spokesperson for Bedfordshire police said that none of the men were arrested, and that the Terrorism Act allows the police to "stop and examine people if something happens that might be suspicious." She did not clarify what the actors had done to arouse suspicion.
Lie Lab:
In May 2007, two members of the Tipton Three – Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul – agreed to participate in the Channel 4 reality show, Lie Lab. The technology used on the show was developed by Professor Sean Spence from the University of Sheffield. It uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to look at the activity in the brain's pre-frontal cortex to view how a subject reacts to questioning. Critics of the test have included neuroscientists and legal scholars, who have said the technique is unlikely to accurately measure truth-telling as there are too many variables affecting results. They think the technique may be useful for additional research.
Although Ahmed had earlier said that he entered Afghanistan to do charity work, on the programme he said that he had visited an Islamist training camp, where he handled weapons and learned how to use an AK-47. Rasul refused to go through with the test.
BBC Five Live Interview:
In January 2010, on BBC Radio 5 Live, both Ruhal Ahmed and Shafiq Rasul confirmed having visited a Taliban training camp, but said they were trapped in the province, and "we all went to the Taliban training camp on many occasions to find out what was happening. Because they were the government at the time."
The interviewer Victoria Derbyshire observed that Ahmed had admitted handling AK-47 rifles. Shafiq Rasul responded:
Being in Afghanistan, we were at that age where… seeing a gun… you’d never seen a gun in the UK… you want to hold it. You want to see what it’s like. But we were never there to do any training. That’s what, that’s what, we were just there. We held it to see what it was like. That’s how we’ve explained it. But it has been taken out of context, saying that ‘Oh, these guys from the UK, they were at that age, 9/11 had just happened, and they were there for terrorist training’. But, but – that’s not the case. That’s not what happened.
The Whistleblower:
The Whistleblower is a 2010 thriller film directed by Larysa Kondracki and starring Rachel Weisz. Kondracki and Eilis Kirwan wrote the screenplay, which was inspired by the story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a Nebraska police officer who was recruited as a United Nations peacekeeper for DynCorp International in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. While there, she discovered a sex trafficking ring serving (and facilitated by) DynCorp employees, with the UN SFOR turning a blind eye. Bolkovac was fired and forced out of the country after attempting to shut down the ring. She took the story to BBC News in England and won a wrongful-dismissal lawsuit against DynCorp.
Aftermath:
The Whistleblower portrays DynCorp International employees as participants in the postwar Bosnian sex trade with the UN turning a blind eye. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon hosted a screening of the film and promised action would be taken to prevent further instances of human trafficking. Bolkovac responded, "Unfortunately, the widespread horror is already there. This is not going to be simple or a quick fix." She said that in addition to Bosnia, peacekeepers had violated human rights in Nigeria, Kosovo, Burundi, Sierra Leone, the Congo, Liberia, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Haiti, Colombia, Guinea and Sudan. Kondracki added that while she wanted to be optimistic and hoped that the screening would "lead to genuine discussion and thought about the UN's involvement in sex trafficking and other crimes", she worried that it might not have the desired lasting impact: "I know we are going to hear a lot about what has been done since the time depicted in this film, but rhetoric only goes so far. The situation has escalated." Following the theatrical release of The Whistleblower, The Guardian reported that other UN officials attempted to downplay the events depicted and that initiatives against trafficking in Bosnia were aborted.
DynCorp International spokesperson Ashley Burke said:
I haven't seen the movie so I can't comment on its content, but I can tell you that, when we contacted the film's distributor to learn more about the movie, we were informed that the film 'is a fictionalized dramatic presentation' that while inspired by Ms. Bolkovac's experiences, is not based on her book. There was no threatened legal action taken to ensure they did not use the company's name in the film.
The Dictator:
The Dictator is a 2012 American comedy film co-written by and starring Sacha Baron Cohen. Baron Cohen, in the role of Admiral General Aladeen, the dictator of the fictional Republic of Wadiya visiting the United States. Producers Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel said that Baron Cohen's character was inspired by actual dictators Kim Jong-il, Idi Amin,Muammar Gaddafi, and Saparmurat Niyazov.
A version of the trailer was made for a Super Bowl XLVI commercial in February 2012. Archival news footage of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and David Cameron in the beginning of the trailer are excerpts of their 2011 speeches condemning Colonel Gaddafi.
Censorship:
The film has officially been banned in Tajikistan, described as "unlikely" to be shown in Turkmenistan, shortened to 71 minutes by the censorship in Uzbekistan, and banned from screens two weeks after its premiere in Kazakhstan. In Pakistan, only the censored version has been released. Rumors were circulating that the film has been also informally banned from showing in Belarus, but state officials denied this referring to deficiency of properly equipped movie theaters suitable for showing the film distributed exclusively in digital format. The film was also reportedly blocked from theaters in Malaysia. In Italy, the reference to the "Italian Prime Minister" in the scene with Megan Fox has been substituted by a generic "politician", to avoid referring to Silvio Berlusconi.
Zero Dark Thirty:
Zero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American action thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. Billed as "the story of history's greatest manhunt for the world's most dangerous man", the film dramatizes the decade-long manhunt for al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. This search eventually leads to the discovery of his compound in Pakistan, and the military raid on it that resulted in his death on May 2, 2011.
Controversy
Allegations of partisanship:
Opponents of the Obama Administration charged that Zero Dark Thirty was scheduled for an October release just before the November presidential election to support his re-election, as Bin Laden's killing is regarded as a success for President Obama. Sony denied that politics was a factor in release scheduling and said the date was the best available spot for an action-thriller in a crowded lineup.
Allegations of improper access to classified information:
Several Republican sources charged the Obama Administration of improperly providing Bigelow and her team access to classified information during their research for the film. These charges, along with charges of other leaks to the media, became a prevalent election season talking point by conservatives. The Republican national convention party platform even claimed Obama "has tolerated publicizing the details of the operation to kill the leader of Al Qaeda." No release of these details has been proven.
The Republican congressman Peter T. King requested that the CIA and the U.S. Defense Department investigate if classified information was inappropriately released; both departments said they would look into it. The CIA responded to Congressman King writing, "the protection of national security equities – including the preservation of our ability to conduct effective counterterrorism operations – is the decisive factor in determining how the CIA engages with filmmakers and the media as a whole."
The conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch publicized CIA and U.S. Defense Department documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, and alleged that "unusual access to agency information" was granted to the filmmakers. But, an examination of the documents showed no evidence that classified information was leaked to the filmmakers. In addition, CIA records did not show any involvement by the White House in relation to the filmmakers. The filmmakers have said they were not given access to classified details about Osama bin Laden's killing.
In January 2013, Reuters reported that the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence will review the contacts between the CIA and the filmmakers to find out whether Bigelow and Boal had inappropriate access to classified information. In February, Reuters reported that the inquiry was dropped.
Thirteen Days:
Thirteen Days is a 2000 American historical drama-thriller film directed by Roger Donaldson dramatising the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, seen from the perspective of the US political leadership. Kevin Costner stars, with Bruce Greenwood featured as President John F. Kennedy, Steven Culp as Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and Dylan Baker as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara.
While the movie carries the same name as the book Thirteen Days by former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, it is in fact based on a different book, The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis by Ernest May and Philip Zelikow. It is the second docudrama made about the crisis, the first being 1974's The Missiles of October, which was based on Kennedy's book. The 2000 film contains some newly declassified information not available to the earlier production, but takes greater dramatic license, particularly in its choice of Kenneth O'Donnell as protagonist.
Controversy:
Some former Kennedy officials and contemporary historians, including Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Special Counsel Ted Sorensen, and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, have criticized the film for the depiction of Special Assistant Kenneth O'Donnell as chief motivator of Kennedy and others during the crisis. Prior to seeing the movie, McNamara reacted to the premise in a PBS NewsHour interview:
"For God's sakes, Kenny O'Donnell didn't have any role whatsoever in the missile crisis; he was a political appointment secretary to the President; that's absurd."
According to McNamara, the duties performed by O'Donnell in the film are closer to the role Sorensen played during the actual crisis: "It was not Kenny O'Donnell who pulled us all together—it was Ted Sorensen."
Hotel Rawanda:
The film is set in 1994 during the Rwandan Genocide, in which an estimated 800,000 people, mainly Tutsi, were killed by Hutu extremists. During that year, Rwanda's population of seven million was composed of two major ethnic groups: Hutu (approximately 85%), and Tutsi (14%).
The decades following Rwanda's independence from Belgium in 1962 saw growing ethnic tensions and periodic violent attacks and reprisals between Rwanda's Hutu majority and its Tutsi minority. Thousands of Tutsis fled into exile in neighboring countries and in 1990 a failed invasion by a Tutsi rebel exile group sparked a civil war that officially ended in August 1993.
On April 6, 1994, the Rwandan president, a Hutu, was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali airport. Hutu politicians blamed Tutsis for the president's death and within hours, loosely organized Hutu militia groups known collectively as the Interhamwe began mobilizing across Rwanda. In a preplanned campaign, these Hutu gangs killed roughly 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus over the course of 100 days. And, in full awareness of the situation, the international community did virtually nothing to halt the slaughter.
Bollywood Cine-Political Movies:
Rajneeti:
Raajneeti ( Politics) is a 2010 Indian political thriller film co- written , directed and produced by Prakash Jha, with a screenplay by Anjum Rajabali and Prakash Jha, and starring Ajay Devgan, Nana Patekar, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Arjun Rampal, Manoj Bajpayee and Naseeruddin Shah in the lead roles. The title translates literally as "Politics" and contextually as "Affairs of State." The film draws parallels to the epic Mahabharata where shades of Krishna (Nana Patekar), Arjuna (Ranbir Kapoor), Bheema (Arjun Rampal), Duryodhana (Manoj Bajpai) and Karna (Ajay Devgan) can be seen in the characters portrayed.
Controversy:
Raajneeti was first denied a certificate by the censor board of India for their thought that the lead character played by Katrina Kaif is inspired fully or partially from the Congress Party's chief Sonia Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal's chief Rabri Devi. Director Prakash Jha dismissed this allegation, saying his only inspiration was Mahabharata, an epic from ancient India. References to electronic voting machines and parts of the film suggesting that women have to compromise to get ahead in politics, crude dialogues about the Muslim community and some intimate scenes and excessive violence were removed before giving the film a U/A censor certificate.
Madras Café:
Madras Cafe is a 2013 Indian political espionage thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri and Rashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 1980s and early '90s, during the time of Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
Controversy:
The film's alleged depiction of rebels in the Sri Lankan civil war raised concerns. After the release of the trailer, Tamil political parties Naam Tamilar besides Pattali Makkal Katchi called for a ban on the film, citing that it depicts the members of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as terrorists. Seeman stated the heart of the movie is anti-Tamil and Prabhakaran is portrayed as villainous, also remarking that they would stop screenings of the film after a special preview was arranged for pro-Tamil outfits. MDMK party chief Vaiko sought a ban on the movie from the Centre. DMK party chief M Karunanidhi asked the Tamil Nadu government to enquire if the film portrayed Sri Lankan Tamils in a poor light and if so, to take proper action. Replying to the ban demands, John Abraham said while he respects the opinions of everyone, no one is above the Censor board and creativity should not be held on gun point. Mumbai BJP president Ashish Shelar said "the film is an effort to glorify a particular political party and its leaders by demeaning [an]other sect of people. This cannot be permitted", and threatened to stall the release of the film in Mumbai.
The Madurai bench of Madras High Court dismissed a petition to ban the film, although it accepted a similar petition to ban the film in Tamil Nadu—to cancel the clearance certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and send notices to the director and producers of the film, Tamil Nadu Director General of Police, the chairman of the CBFC. The hearing was posted on 21 August. The petition also claimed that Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa secretly financed the film to justify the human rights violations during the final stages of the war. Upon hearing the arguments, the court refused to grant an interim injunction to prevent the release of the Hindi version, while noting the Tamil version should not be released without the CBFC's clearance, which was later obtained. It also issued notices to DGP, producer to give a detailed reply on charges by 3 September.John Abraham has already refuted claims about Rajapaksa financing the film earlier during a promotional event.
Following protests by the Tamil diaspora in the United Kingdom and negative feedback alleging that the film promoted anti-Tamil prejudices, several theatres in the state chose not to screen the film.
Haider:
Haider is a 2014 Indian crime drama film directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, and co-written by Basharat Peer and Bhardwaj. It stars Shahid Kapoor as the titular protagonist, and co-stars Tabu, Shraddha Kapoor and Kay Kay Menon. Irrfan Khan appears in an extended special appearance. The film is a modern-day adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet, set amidst the insurgency-hit Kashmir conflicts of 1995 and civilian disappearances. Haider, a poet, returns to Kashmir at the peak of the conflict to seek answers about his father's disappearance and ends up being tugged into the politics of the state.
Censoring:
After 41 cuts, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) gave the film U/A certificate. The scenes that were censored were a truck load of corpses, wire being inserted inside a naked man, a shot of a bloody dead body, abusive words. Apart from this, a shot of a bare back during the song "Khul Kabhi To" was also considered offensive and censored. The Central Board of Film Certification demanded deletion of a scene where "Haider" (played by Shahid Kapoor) cries on seeing flames. A confusion arose when Kumar along with an examining committee saw the film and prescribed the cuts. After the film was re-edited, instead of sending it to the revising committee for reviewing, Kumar himself watched the film again and gave it a U/A certificate. Nandini Sardesai, a member of the revising committee told The Times of India that Kumar saw Haider twice and passed it with a U/A certificate. She stated that director of the film Vishal Bhardwaj had apparently agreed to the cuts. Later, Bhardwaj clarified that the CBFC only demanded seven cuts but gave his film 35 extra cuts in order to make the script look more realistic.[40] Bhardwaj added that since the film is set in Kashmir and given the associated troubled politics of the state, he knew the film would land in controversies.
The controversy over film's plot, analysts stated that India has become more open to sensitive subjects. Dr. Zakir Hussain, a senior analyst at the Indian Council of World Affairs was quoted saying, "As democratic traditions strengthen in the country, more and more such movies will be made and people will be educated. Haider is the first step in that direction." Director Bhardwaj faced criticism over the depiction of the armed forces in an allegedly unfair way as the film also portrayed scenes of torture in Indian army camps and abuse of human rights by Indian officials. To this portrayal, Indian Twitter users, filled with sentiments brought up hashtagging of words "#BoycottHaider" that generated estimate 75,000 tweets since the film release. In reply to this criticism, people on twitter started trending #HaiderTrueCinema which trended for 2 days and this caused #BoycottHaider to be withdrawn from the list of trending Topics on Twitter.
Kissa Kursi Ka:
Kissa Kursi Ka (Trans: Tale of Throne) is a 1977 Hindi film directed by Amrit Nahata, who was a member of Indian parliament and produced by Badri Prasad Joshi. The film was a satire on the politics of Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay Gandhi and was banned by the Indian Government during the Emergency period and all prints were confiscated. Music of the film was composed by Jaidev Verma.
Ban and Print Confiscation:
The film was submitted to the Censor Board for certification on in April 1975. The film had spoofed Sanjay Gandhi auto-manufacturing plans (later established as Maruti Udyog in 1981), besides Congress supporters like Swami Dhirendra Brahmachari, private secretary to Indira Gandhi R.K. Dhawan, and Rukhsana Sultana. The board sent to seven-member revising committee, which further sent it to Union government. Subsequently, a show-cause notice raising 51 objections was sent to the producer by the Information and Broadcasting ministry. In his reply submitted on July 11, 1975, Nahata stated that the characters were "imaginary and do not refer to any political party or persons". By the time, the Emergency has already been declared.
Subsequently, all the prints and the master-print of the film at Censor Board office were picked up, later brought to Maruti factory in Gurgaon, where they were burned. The subsequent Shah Commission established by Government of India in 1977 to inquiry into excesses committed in the Indian Emergency found Sanjay Gandhi guilt of burning the negative, along with V. C. Shukla, Information and Broadcasting minister of the time.
My name Is Khan:
My Name Is Khan, commonly referred to as MNIK, is a 2010 Indian Hindi drama film directed by Karan Johar, with a screenplay by Shibani Bathija, produced by Hiroo Yash Johar and Gauri Khan, and starring Shahrukh Khan and Kajol, The film was jointly produced by Dharma Productions and Red Chillies Entertainment and was distributed by FOX Star Entertainment, which had bought the rights for the film for a sum of ₹100 crore (US$16 million), making it the most expensive Bollywood film of 2010.[8] It is also the highest buyover for any Indian film, surpassing Ghajini's record of ₹90 crore (US$14 million).
Before its release, the film generated a great deal of publicity for itself due to three main reasons: first, the multiple political controversies surrounding the film and its lead actor; second, Khan's presence in the film (he was last seen in a leading actor role in December 2008, when Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was released); and third, the re-unision of the "golden pair" of Khan and Kajol, who last appeared together in the film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham in 2001.
Airport Security Controversy:
Khan has stated that due to his last name and religion, he (like Rizwan Khan) is frequently subject to excess security checks at airports. On 14 August 2009, Khan arrived in the United States in order to both promote My Name Is Khan and to participate in various South Asian-related events around the country (including Indian Independence Day). Upon arriving at Newark Airport in New Jersey, he was pulled aside by Immigration officers after his name popped up on their computers, questioned for over an hour (Khan claims it was at least two hours) about the nature of his visit, and was later released. According to the Times Online, "In Delhi, Timothy J. Roemer, the American Ambassador to India, said that the embassy was trying to 'ascertain the facts of the case.' He added: 'Shah Rukh Khan, the actor and global icon, is a welcome guest in the United States.'"
Khan said he was told that it was because "they said my name was common to some name that popped up on the computer." The officials asked if he could provide names of people to vouch for him. Khan noted that he "had all the documents; they were asking me where I was going to be staying. I gave the name of FOX people with whom I had finalised a deal a few days ago as contacts." However because they wanted to check his luggage which the airline had lost, Khan said that he "was taken to a room where many people were awaiting a secondary check on visa, most were South Asians. In fact many officers were reluctantly vouching for me, some people were asking for autographs and a Pakistani fan even said he knew who I was. But the officers said it was procedure and kept taking numbers from me."
While he was not allowed to use his own phone, Khan was permitted one phone call. He was thus released after officials from the Indian Consulate intervened. Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel stated that the event will be further explored with U.S. officials. According to the BBC, "Elmer Camacho, a spokesman for the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, said the questioning was part of the agency's routine process to screen foreign travellers." When asked if he would demand an apology, Khan replied that he would not.
The director of My Name Is Khan, Karan Johar, was asked during an August, 2009 interview with MiD DAY if the event was a publicity stunt for the film. Johar denied that it was and responded: "It's upsetting because I got a text message this morning asking me if it was publicity plug for my movie. (Sarcastically) I mean, if I had that much power over the Homeland Security, why would I allow Shah Rukh to go through something like this? [...] What's really shocking is the fact that when I was writing the film, I never thought that what happened to the protagonist of the film would happen to Shah Rukh." During a January 2010 interview, Khan referred to the implication that the event was a publicity stunt for the film as, "lowdown and cheap." Christopher B. Duncan, who portrays President Obama in My Name Is Khan, also commented on the incident stating: "I was very disappointed with what SRK experienced at the airport. We're living in times where the levels of fear can sometimes spill over into paranoia. Here’s a man who is an international superstar, being detained for an excessive amount of time at an airport in the United States. It had to be very upsetting for him. Imagine Oprah (Winfrey) being detained at an airport in India for a long time, during a kind of interrogation."
In addition, the incident sparked debate and commentary among Indian politicians, actors, and others. It also led to demonstrations in India. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger later invited Khan to have dinner with him "in a bid to diffuse what has become a slight diplomatic row."
In another event, on 5 February 2010, while promoting My Name Is Khan on the British talk show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Khan claimed that female security staff at Heathrow Airport in London had printed a naked image of him taken using the newly installed body scanner that he was asked to go through. He said that he autographed it for them, though it is not clear if his comments were intended as a joke. A BAA spokeswoman for Heathrow Airport, however, has denied his claim. She claimed that it was "completely factually incorrect", stressing that images captured using the equipment could not be stored or distributed in any form and that his claims "simply could not be true."
In relation to Khan's comments, The Economic Times has also raised concerns over the new body scanners and the possibilities of it being abused to distribute naked pictures of celebrities. His comments have restarted the debate in Britain over whether the newly introduced body scanners violate individual privacy.
Shiv Sena Controversy:
After Shahrukh Khan (who owns the Kolkata Knight Riders cricket team) criticised the fact that members of the Pakistani Cricket Team were not bought by the clubs competing in the 2010 Indian Premier League (IPL), he was condemned by Shiv Sena, a Hindu nationalist political party. There were consequent protests and demonstrations against him and demands that cinemas in India refuse to screen My Name Is Khan. Khan responded by stating, "What did I say that was wrong? All I said was that I wanted people to come to my country." Khan continued by stating that: "I have no idea what I am supposed to apologise for [...] If I am in wrong I would like to apologise but someone needs to explain to me what is wrong." He also stated that he does "not want any confrontation. I am trying to explain myself on every platform [...] I have not said anything that is anti-national." Khan also said that he was willing to meet with Bal Thackeray to discuss the issue.
Initially, Shiv Sena rescinded its demand to block release of My Name Is Khan after it was announced that Khan would be allowed to release it "in as many theatres" as he would like to. However, on 10 January 2010, when cinemas opened for advanced bookings, individuals disguised as "cinegoers" began to attack cinemas and booking centres. Director Karan Johar and distributors met with police to ask for additional security. In response, Chief Minister of Maharashtra Ashok Chavan threatened to withdraw security cover for party leader Uddhav Thackeray. Later, some security was withdrawn and the Maharashtra government has also "called in five battalions of the State Reserve Police Force to protect 63 cinemas in the city that will screen the film directed by Karan Johar from this Friday." There were multiple arrests and leaves of all police officials were cancelled. The distributor, Fox Star, stated that the film will still be released on its scheduled opening date, 12 February. It opened to full cinema houses in quite a number of places across India.
Comments
Post a Comment