Padmavati

Padmavati

The Indian Film & TV Directors’ Association (IFTDA) have called for a meeting of likeminded directors, technicians and representatives of the film industry today (Monday) at 5 PM at the Club Millennium Juhu Mumbai. Filmmaker Ashok Pandit who has organized this press conference feels very strongly about the Padmavati protests. “These hysterical protests are a symptom of a very dangerous trend in our country of politicizing art. And we must stop this trend before it kills cinema and all other art. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s cinema has nothing to do with politics. Why then do we have goons posing as politicians baying for his blood? What wrong has he done? What harm has he done? He has given us a series of masterpieces and classics. And this is how we repay him?” At the press conference on Monday evening Pandit and the IFTDA hopes for a gathering of concerned filmmakers and technicians expressing solidarity towards Padmavati. “Don’t make the mistake of thinking this is only Bhansali’s problem. Yesterday it was Karan Johar who was being hounded by political protests and he had to issue a clarification on video, just like Bhansali. Why are filmmakers being made to bend bow and scrape to these extra-constitutional bullies? It must stop!” warns Pandit.