Bollywood filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri is once again in the headlines for his statement on veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar. In a recent conversation with The Carvaka Podcast, Vivek talked about Mr. Akhtar and appreciated him for his contribution to Bollywood. He also took an indirect dig at him as he referred to him as ‘communist’.
He said, ‘Even a man like Javed Akhtar, the bhajans he wrote for Lagaan were pure Hindi. ‘Madhuban mein Radha..’ there is not a single Urdu word in it. Because these were well-read, intelligent people who were tied to the roots of India. He may be a communist, he may fight against the right-wing, it doesn't matter.’
‘All of Javed Akhtar's heroes, all of them were either a labourer's son, a teacher's son and he would fight a dacoit or a mill owner or a zamindar. He would fight a corrupt police inspector or corrupt MLA. In which movie of recent times would you find MLAs, MPs, Police inspectors, IAS officers as the villains? It's as if India has no issues at all. The only issues are whether you are sleeping with this person or that person. That's where they have brought Bollywood,' he added.
Earlier, the filmmaker in an interview with Kushal Mehra talked about Aamir Khan’s ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’ and he took a dig at the film.
He said, ‘In the worst possible scenario, you might at least have some loyal audience. And if you do not have a loyal audience then that means everything was bogus and fraud. You were fooling people and why are you even charging 150-200 crore then?’
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