'Intolerance' bites SRK again: VHP storms into Raees' Bhuj shooting
Looks like the otherwise perfectly apolitical Shah Rukh Khan's one-time blunder at being political will keep coming back to bite him time and time again. His "intolerance" remark, which he has since retracted, has been nevertheless inviting the ire of Sangh Parivar's extended paterfamilias.
Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members, clearly not satisfied enough after protesting against King Khan's Dilwale, and consigning its much-anticipated blockbuster destiny to dust, have now turned their attention to his next, and more aesthetically ambitious, venture, Raees.
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| VHP, Bajrang Dal activists burn posters of Aamir and Shah Rukh Khan at a theatre showing the latter's Dilwale. |
VHP cadres have held up the shooting of Khan's new project, which is directed by acclaimed filmmaker Rahul Dholakia, ostensibly to resister their deep consternation over the actor's "intolerance" comment, made last year during a couple of interviews to top journalists, including India Today's consulting editor, Rajdeep Sardesai.
However, the actor soon tried to balance his previous remarks by saying he never said India was intolerant, but that he was misconstrued.
However, no retraction or garbed apology can soothe the permanently flared nerves of the Hindutvawalas, with 20-30 VHP activists handing over on Tuesday a memo to Bhuj's administrative officers, demanding that the shooting permit be withdrawn with immediate effect.
This was followed up by a staged demonstration outside the district collector's office, where sloganeering against the superstar and burning of his film posters were orchestrated in a bid to stall the shoot.
Evidently, VHP is not happy with boycotting just one film of Shah Rukh Khan. We suggest the actor prepares for many such "cultural interventions" from India's perennially offended.