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What the Run-up to ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ Release Exposed

The “ban” on ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ is lifted, but the process of solving the issue has raised some serious questions

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I had told my friends that MNS wouldn’t spoil their Diwali weekend plans to watch Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. After having covered Shiv Sena and MNS for almost a decade, I knew that such “agitations” are generally withdrawn at the right time when honourable exits are offered.

There are three parties involved here — MNS, CM Devendra Fadnavis and Karan Johar. Let’s talk about MNS first. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which celebrated its 10th birthday this year, is in bad shape.

The party was undecided until the eleventh hour whether it would fight the 2014 Lok Sabha polls or not. And when they did, the loss was so disastrous that all its candidates lost deposits. The party managed to win only one Assembly seat in the Vidhan Sabha elections that followed.

After two back-to-back defeats, Raj Thackeray went silent for some time. Many of his leaders and workers abandoned him. Raj Thackeray is finished, announced some experts.

Although it’s immature to rule anyone out in politics, the situation of MNS was serious. It badly needed an issue ahead of crucial BMC elections. The party has been consistently focusing on potholes in Mumbai among other civic issues, but media had little interest.

MNS was looking for a strong, emotional issue and the atmosphere created after Uri attacks provided it.

I partly agree with Rajdeep Sardesai that not all eye-balls convert into votes. But one also needs to consider that unlike the Shiv Sena, MNS is a party with weak structure and crippled cadre. So, it heavily depends on media to reach out to urban, emotionally charged voters. The party needed to make its presence felt and rejuvenate its demoralised workers.

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Riding On The Uri Wave

Uri attack created an anti-Pakistan atmosphere in India. And a big film with a Pakistani actor was set to release during that time. This was a perfect issue for MNS and Shiv Sena to pick up. Shiv Sena has sobered up a bit under Uddhav’s leadership and has become a bit complacent while in power.

MNS, however, is desperate. You talk to its core voters and you realise that they completely approve of the party’s stand on Pakistani actors.

The “ban” on ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ is lifted, but the process of solving the issue has raised  some serious questions
Fawad Khan is one of the 4 leads in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. (Photo courtesy: Twitter; altered by The Quint)

So, while Raj Thackeray may have withdrawn his “agitation”, he has succeeded in getting some attention and some appreciation from his voters. He will now go to town claiming to be the tough guy, who had the guts to speak against Pakistan. One needs to understand that he’s fighting against Shiv Sena in this “anti-Pakistan” space.

Interestingly, before the Uri attacks, MNS workers had beaten up north Indian fruit vendors at Ghatkopar in Mumbai. So, it was clear that MNS was going to project itself as a pro-Marathi party. Suddenly, the anti-bhaiya narrative is gone and MNS leaders are talking about the nation and not Maharashtra! This is called riding on the wave!

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Dear Devendra, Why Did You Do This?

There are two ways to look at Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’ role in the entire issue. He kept quiet while threats were issued publicly. When he thought the time was ripe, he called both the warring (although one wasn’t interested in the war, other was itching for it) parties and solved the issue in no time.

The first and positive way to look at it is that the Chief Minister has amicably solved the issue and averted a potential law-and-order situation. He has also ensured that the film releases in time and without any threat.

However, I have two fundamental issues with the way it was solved. One, the CM is the custodian of law and he should not have given credibility to those who openly talked of breaking the law. Two, he agreed to the “prayashchit” formula, under which Karan Johar would (forcefully) “donate” around Rs 5 crore to Army Relief Fund.

What mistake did Karan commit that he has to take this “prayashchit”(atonement)?

The “ban” on ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ is lifted, but the process of solving the issue has raised  some serious questions
Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan on the poster of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil. (Photo courtesy: Twitter/@DharmaMovies)

Fadnavis let MNS get all the air-time for a week so that the party gains some traction, which will likely hurt Shiv Sena. In the upcoming BMC polls, Shiv Sena is going to be a big headache for the BJP. But he also ensured that the problem was solved before it went out of hand. So, Fadnavis may have played it politically well, but his way of solving the problem was anything but just.

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Bollywood is Bending and Crawling

Some may find Karan Johar’s melodramatic films crappy, but most of them have been hugely successful. So, we can safely say that he perfectly understands what Indians want; he was even right in casting Fawad as lakhs of Indians were drooling over him before Uri attacks. What Karan couldn’t understand was that Indian love for Pakistani people is at the mercy of volatile Indo-Pak ties.

I will not blame Karan for his undemanded apology. It’s foolish to expect him to take on political goons when his investment of crores of rupees is at stake. But what I find disturbing is the extent to which bodies of producers and exhibitors have gone to express their “solidarity with soldiers”. They crawled when they weren’t even asked to bend.

The “ban” on ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ is lifted, but the process of solving the issue has raised  some serious questions
Amitabh Bachchan, Amit Thackeray and Ameya Khopkar. (Photo courtesy: Ameya Khopkar)

Films are all about freedom of expression. But throughout this episode, barring a few exceptions, the reactions, or lack of it, from the industry have been disappointing. They could have been united and fought off the hooligans. But when the shehenshan of this industry decided to host the perpetrators at the peak of this impasse, what can we expect from the common soldiers?

(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)

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