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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Remarks against St Francis Xavier: Right-wing speaker Gautam Khattar gets bail
Panaji (PTI): A court in Goa on Saturday granted bail to right-wing speaker Gautam Khattar, who was arrested after he allegedly made derogatory comments against St Francis Xavier.
Judicial Magistrate First Class, Vasco, granted regular bail to Khattar, currently admitted to Goa Medical College and Hospital at Bambolim for treatment of chest pain after he was shifted from the District Hospital in Mapusa two days back.
A row erupted after a video of remarks by Khattar, the founder of Sanatan Mahasangh, at an event on April 18 in the presence of Swami Brahmeshanand, State Transport Minister Mauvin Godinho and BJP MLAs Sankulp Amonkar and Daji (Krishna) Salkar, went viral.
St Francis Xavier is revered as the patron saint of Goa.
The controversial remarks led to the Vasco Police registering an FIR against Khattar on charges of hurting religious sentiments and creating enmity between groups.
He was detained in Kullu, Himachal Pradesh, by local police. His custody was later handed over to the Goa Crime Branch, according to officials.
