Movies have a lasting influence on human lives. Some movies change the lives of individuals in unimaginable ways. For years now, Bollywood has understood the influence of cinema and has shadily used it to further all sorts of propaganda to target India’s culture and traditions.
The sordid saga of Bollywood’s attempts to whitewash the crimes committed by certain communities and subtly target the cultural values of the civilisation nation is not a new phenomenon. Over the years, Bollywood has not only tried to humanise the Muslim community by peddling distorted narratives, but also it has successfully sold the ‘perpetual victimhood’ narrative to absolve all the crimes they commit.
Well, some directors and moviemakers have taken this dangerous act to the next level to create a fierce anti-India perception among fellow countrymen with the help of their movies. In the guise of indulging in creative art, the filmmakers have sold distorted facts and narratives to show the country in a negative shade, so and so that the individuals part of the project turn up engrossing all of it.
One such movie in the recent past was Haider, directed by controversial movie director Vishal Bharadwaj.
The movie ‘Haider’, a brainchild by notorious anti-India propagandist and Pakistani-American Basharat Peer, was so influential in depicting the one-sided view of Kashmir such that, years later, one of the actors who played a role in the movie joined the ranks of terrorists to wage war against India.
It must be surprising to know that a Kashmiri youth named Saqib Bilal Sheikh, who was featured by Bollywood director Vishal Bharadwaj in his propaganda movie “Haider”, turned out to be a terrorist in real life. Saqib Sheikh, who was cast by the far-left movie director Vishal Bharadwaj in his controversial propaganda movie “Haider” in a minor role, joined the terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba within months after featuring in the film.
Five years after he acted in Bharadwaj’s movie, Saqib Sheikh was neutralised by the security forces in December 2018. The actor-turned-terrorist had gone missing from his home in August 2018, along with his 14-year-old friend Mudasir Rashid Parray, who was also among those killed in the counter-terror operations.
As per the reports, Saqib Sheikh had left home after his mother asked him to go to a nearby market to get some meat for lunch. Apparently, that was the last time the family saw him.
Following his death, Saqib’s family had claimed that they had no clue that his son was a terrorist.
“Yes, he worked in the film ‘Haider’. But it wasn’t the main role it was just a ‘chocolate boy’ role,” Saqib’s maternal uncle Asim Aijaz had said.
Saqib had acted in a scene shot at Amar Singh College in which a bomb blast takes place, and Saqib’s character will be the lone survivor in that blast, his uncle said, adding, “It was just a 15-second scene.”
After joining terrorism, Saqib reportedly had returned to his village many times. He even met some of his friends during his visit; however, he never tried to reconnect with his family.
Far-left media ‘humanised’ Saqib, portrayed him as an avid ‘footballer’
Well, if Bollywood does all the brainwashing of young people, who end up becoming Saqibs of the world, then there is also the left-wing media outlets and the ‘secular-liberal’ ecosystem that absolves and humanises terrorists like Saqib.
A day after the killing of Saqib Sheikh and his friend Mudasir Parray, the far-left media outlet – The Wire tried to sympathise with the terrorists by highlighting how good football players they were. In a report published by the Wire, the propaganda outlet attempted to show a soft corner towards the Lashkar terrorists who picked up arms against the Indian state by making us believe that one was a football enthusiast and the other one a theatre artist.
As per The Wire, Saqib loved football and was a bright student who had scored 76% in Class 10 finals. Saqib’s relatives had informed The Wire that he wanted to become an engineer, but “fate had something else in store for him”.
“A theatre artist, he had won a theatre competition three years ago in Kerala and even appeared in a cameo role in Vishal Bhardwaj’s film Haider, a Bollywood film based on Kashmir,” the Wire wrote, making its readers believe that Saqib was just another innocent boy from Kashmir who joined terror groups out of certain circumstances.
Interestingly, the Wire quoted one of Saqib’s uncles Asim Aijaz, who was unapologetic about Saqib’s act. Glorifying the actor-turned-terrorist, Ijaz said, “They fought like lions. This is not mourning, this is a joyous moment”.
