Madhur Bhandarkar exposes Shabana Azmi’s hypocrisy

With each passing day, everyone worth their salt is trying to take advantage of the Padmavati film controversy to score their own brownie points. On Friday night, actor Shabana Azmi took to Twitter to express her anger at the controversy and show her solidarity with the filmmakers of Padmavati.

She started with saying how action should be taken against the fringe elements who want actor Deepika Padukone, who is playing the role of Padmavati, maimed.

https://twitter.com/AzmiShabana/status/931428812482666496?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
But then, soon she went from showing solidarity for creative freedom to targeting the government, especially Smriti Irani, the Information and Broadcasting Minister.

https://twitter.com/AzmiShabana/status/931573786633125889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/AzmiShabana/status/931640801204957185?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

https://twitter.com/AzmiShabana/status/931760706273271808?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Azmi’s meltdown ended with her demanding that the entire film fraternity should boycott IFFI, International Film Festival of India, which begins from 20th November, to protest against the threats.

https://twitter.com/AzmiShabana/status/931762168327946240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Her selective outrage got called out by filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who faced violent protests by Congress workers, when his film Indu Sarkar was about to release earlier this year.

He, too, took to micro blogging site to remind Shabana of the hypocrisy and virtue signalling she often indulges in.

https://twitter.com/imbhandarkar/status/931837428175917056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
One Congress leader had announced a booty of Rs. 1 lakh to blacken Bhandarkar’s face.

https://twitter.com/haseebcongress/status/882476641825546240?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The film Indu Sarkar was a fiction based on the 19 month long Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother Indira Gandhi in 1970s. Despite Bhandarkar’s assurances that the film was not a biopic on Gandhi’s life, Congress workers and leaders came down heavily on him.

https://twitter.com/imbhandarkar/status/886199782410252288?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Not surprisingly, Azmi had put up no such tweets in support of Bhandarkar.

Reportedly Censor Board is furious with filmmakers for organising private screenings without waiting for CBFC certification. They say the filmmakers sent incomplete documents. Prasoon Joshi said that the private screening held for few journalists was ‘irresponsible way of pressuring’ the board. The application was sent back due to lack of documentation and the filmmakers had to rectify and send it back.

OpIndia Staff: Staff reporter at OpIndia