Anubav Sinha writes open letter to trolls accusing him of running propaganda in favour of Muslims
Mumbai, July 16 : Filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, who is being accused of running propaganda to garner support and sympathy for Muslims through his upcoming film "Mulk", has hit out at trolls, saying the movie is not funded by either underworld kingpin Dawood Ibrahim, the Congress or the RSS, and neither is it about Hindus or Muslims.
In a Twitter post on Monday, Sinha, who has directed the movie, articulated his thoughts about the negative comments that he has been receiving against the film, a courtroom drama about restoring the honour of a Muslim family accused of treason.
Sinha has slammed trolls for how they are "lost under heaps and heaps of hate posts that you write every day, every hour for four years now" and without having "a name or a face".
He explained: "'Mulk'... No it is not funded by Dawood Ibrahim. You can ask him. Not even Congress. You can ask Rahul (Gandhi). Not even the RSS. You can check with Mohan Bhagwatji. It is funded by Mr Deepak Mukut and his father Kamal Mukut, a veteran in this business.
"No... Every post of mine is not about 'Mulk'. We are spending crore of rupees promoting the film, we spent even more making it. These tweets are just a very minor part of the campaign and like I said, we do have a life.And a voice, so outside of our work we do talk."
He said reading posts from trolls makes him smile, and he "feels bad".
"Sometimes you do end up hurting us but mostly not because we know it is not your voice. In fact, it is not even you. It is just your fingers and your eyes being grossly underutilised by your masters. It is your master's instructions and we give a damn about them."
Sinha took the opportunity also to plug in the film, which features Rishi Kapoor, Taapsee Pannu, Neena Gupta, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra, Ashutosh Rana, Prachee Shah Paandya, Vartika Singh, Ashrut Jain and Indraneil Sengupta.
"'Mulk' is a very nice film. It is not doing what you think it is doing. It is not about your masters. Hindus or Muslims. It is about you and it is about me and mostly it is about us."
An open letter to all the trolls. Bring it on!!! pic.twitter.com/QSLMOBLmnz
— Anubhav Sinha (@anubhavsinha) July 15, 2018
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AIITA welcomes Karnataka’s ban on obscene songs in school events
Bhatkal: The Karnataka unit of the All India Ideal Teachers Association (AIITA) has welcomed the Karnataka government’s decision to strictly ban school children from dancing to obscene songs during educational and cultural programmes in government, aided, and private schools across the state.
AIITA Karnataka State President M. R. Manvi congratulated the government for taking what he termed an important step to preserve the sanctity of education.
“Such decisions to safeguard the dignity of school children and uphold the values of education are the need of the hour. This rule should not be limited to government schools alone but must be strictly implemented in all private educational institutions as well,” he said.
He further urged the government to address other concerns within school programmes.
“The government should not only prohibit obscene dances in the name of school anniversaries, but also ensure that plays and dialogues that incite religious hatred are avoided. Schools should be centres of harmony, not platforms for spreading hatred,” he added.
According to a recent circular issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy, obscene dances are adversely affecting the mental health and moral values of students.
In this regard, schools have been advised to use songs that promote nationalism, positive thinking, the greatness of Kannada culture, and value-based traditions instead of inappropriate content during programmes.
The circular also emphasises that students should be dressed in decent attire.
AIITA also backed the department’s warning that disciplinary action would be taken against head teachers if such guidelines are violated. The association has further demanded that district Deputy Directors of Public Instruction strictly monitor the implementation of these rules.
