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Read why social media users are appalled at Radio Mirchi

OpIndia Staff
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Read why social media users are appalled at Radio Mirchi

Yesterday, Twitter was abuzz with the outrage on the Swiss couple assaulted in Agra during their trip to Fatehpur Sikri. Even External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj took to Twitter to assure Indians as well as tourists that the government is working for maintenance of law, order and safety for everyone.


A county like India which has such rich and varied culture and history to offer, tourism is one of the very important industries. Hence, the concern over safety of tourists is not misplaced.

While making the elected government accountable for their deeds is within your right, being an abusive troll and indulging in fear mongering is not something a responsible citizen should resort to. Akash Bannerjee, Vice President of popular radio channel Radio Mirchi, is known to be a hateful twitter troll, and has also been accused of spreading a fake video on Twitter.

Yesterday, Bannerjee shared another video, this time addressing foreign tourists visiting India, urging them to not visit us. At first he reached out to Swiss Broadcasting Company and passive aggressively informed them about the attack that took place yesterday. After about 10-12 hours of posting it, he put another tweet in the same thread, addressing same organisation saying how India is not safe for tourists and they should not come.


The ad starts with how Incredible India welcomed tourists then (which is a non-specified time in the past) where things were great. But now, all tourist spots are unsafe and hence, instead of ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ it is #MatAaoIndia. It was appalling. Safety is paramount, but is this a way to create awareness? This is more like fear mongering. If a reputed and popular radio station is running it, Indian tourism industry will come crashing down!

Soon, twitterati questioned whether Radio Mirchi, a respectable brand with a very wide reach and influence, stands by the video which reeks of sheer irresponsibility!


Twitter users also pointed out that perhaps the Unified Access licence Department of Telecommunication guidelines could do with amendment such that the platforms of public goods are not misused.

It is really unfortunate that a brand like Radio Mirchi would want to dissuade tourists from visiting India because of one unfortunate incident.

Income Tax Department provisionally attaches Roys’ shares in NDTV

OpIndia Staff
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Income Tax Department provisionally attaches Roys’ shares in NDTV

In yet another move on NDTV’s promoters Prannoy and Radhika Roy, the Income Tax Department today provisionally attaching the entire shareholding of RRPR Holding Private Limited (RRPR), in NDTV. RRPR is one of the promoters of NTDV the media house. RRPR is in turn owned by Prannoy and Radhika Roy.

NDTV informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about this development, saying that RRPR had received an order dated 25/10/2017 issued by Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax, informing them about this move:

The intimation also states that RRPR is in the process of seeking legal advice in the matter. Section 281B of the Income Tax Act, authorises an officer to provisionally attach property of an assessee, if he is of the opinion that for the purpose of protecting the interests of the IT Department, it is necessary so to do. This is applicable in cases of assessment or reassessment of any income which has escaped assessment.

NDTV’s shares were recently the subject of rumours when it was noticed by many that the share prices had moved up almost by almost 80% in just a few days, without any specific public reason.

This attachment of property comes just months after the house of NDTV’s founders Prannoy and Radhika Roy was raided by the CBI. The raid was part a crackdown for bank frauds. The CBI has registered a case against Prannoy Roy, his wife and co-founder of the channel Radhika Roy, a private company and others for allegedly defrauding a private bank. The case related to a Rs 396 crore fraud on ICICI Bank.

The Income Tax too was interested in these web of companies as it was looking into undisclosed income to the tune of Rs 1600 crore relating to NDTV. A media report, quoting sources, suggested that the assessment of the concealed income of Rs 642.5 crore by NDTV Group and related companies was done in February, 2014. Re-assessment proceedings for concealment of income of Rs 403.85 crore were initiated against M/s RRPR Holdings Pvt Ltd owned by Prannoy and Radhika Roy.

NDTV itself had also been in trouble after, Sanjay Dutt, director of a financial-services firm Quantum Securities who owned around 125,000 shares in NDTV, had filed complaints with Enforcement Directorate and Directorate General of Income Tax alleging that that NDTV and its promoters had violated a number of laws. In January 2015, Dutt had filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court against Enforcement Directorate and Directorate General of Income Tax Investigation alleging that both agencies failed to act on his complaints.

The Enforcement Directorate, in November last year, had slapped a show cause notice to NDTV for flouting foreign exchange regulations while bringing foreign investments to the tune of Rs 2,030 crore between 2007-10.

The last time NDTV’s founders had to answer to the law, the media had taken a stand that this was against freedom of the press and the raids on the Roys were an attempt to silence media.

I&B ministry to punish ‘NDTV India’ for compromising national security?

OpIndia Staff
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I&B ministry to punish ‘NDTV India’ for compromising national security?

The NDTV media group has become infamous for getting into a variety of controversies, chief of which are allegations of it reporting fake news. It has also recently met an adversary in former employee Barkha Dutt, who has levelled allegations about the channel censoring news stories. Barkha has also claimed that corporate lobbyist Nira Radia helped the channel financially. Now its promoters Prannoy and Radhika Roy too have suffered a blow in form of the Income Tax provisionally attaching their shares in NDTV.

If this wasn’t enough, its Hindi channel “NDTV India” has in the past been accused of compromising India’s national security.

In November we had reported how NDTV India was was given a token 1 day ban for its reporting of the January, 2016 Pathankot attack.

Soon after the terror attack, the Information and Broadcasting ministry had set-up an Inter-ministerial committee which had expressed grave concerns about the channel revealing sensitive details like location of ammunition depot, the place where terrorists were held up and location of school and residential areas. We in an exclusive report had later also reported the exact reasons for ban, which were damning to say the least.

In order to fight the ban, the channel knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court after which the I&B ministry put the token ban on hold. The case has since then largely languished in the courts but can erupt again in the next 24 hours if journalists and sources are to be believed.

Today Abhijit Majumder, the Managing Editor of Mail Today dropped a bombshell on Facebook that a “leading channel” is likely to be taken off air for 15 days for breaching national security norms. He further wrote that the action was being taken on the basis of policy guidelines which were brought in by the UPA government in December, 2011.

As per him, the channel had violated clause 6.1 of the policy which states that permission granted shall be revoked if the channel is found to transmit content inconsistent with public interest or national security. 

He later indicated the identity of the channel by writing that:

This action is apparently being taken after previous I&B minister Venkaiah Naidu asked the channel for a representation after it, in the government’s view, seriously compromised national security while covering a terror attack.
Government sources said while the channel kept informally regretting the coverage, no representation was made.
The channel instead moved court and told SC that it would not apologise for the coverage and it was under no such breach.

A couple of sources in the ministry we talked to, confirmed that NDTV India is likely to go off air. As per our sources, the channel didn’t give a satisfactory answer and also refused to apologise which is supposed to have prompted this possible ban.

If this news indeed turns out to be true, it might be a clear statement by the I&B ministry that news channels need to be extra careful while reporting content regarding national security.

This incident has also raised certain legal questions. Firstly, can the government come up with such an executive order when the case regarding the matter is pending with the Supreme Court. That is, can the channel be punished unless the current proceedings are over or would the channel again be successful in getting a stay on the order like it did in the previous case?

We would get the answers in the coming days…

The Wire promoting faulty Dalit statistics by dubious ‘Navsarjan Trust’

Vikrant
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The Wire promoting faulty Dalit statistics by dubious ‘Navsarjan Trust’

It has long been established that creating fault lines within India is what the Left does, intentionally or unintentionally. This is done with exaggerated narratives and sometimes, with cooked up facts and figures that suit their narrative.

One such attempt caught my eye when a “The Wire” tweet landed on my twitter feed. This made a very tall claim that “Gujarat has only 2.33% of India’s Dalit population but ranks fourth on atrocities against the community”, with attached video where Navsarjan trust’s Founder & head Martin Macwan gave interview in support of the above statement. Since the Una Incident last year, a lot of Dalit atrocity incidents have been reported by the media and specially from Gujarat, which is poll bound.

Given The Wire’s reputation, I instinctively started digging into the credentials and track record of Martin and Navsarjan Trust.

To begin with, the statistic of Gujarat being 4th in Dalit atrocities is based on Navsarjan’s own “Survey”. However, a quick glance [pdf] at NCRB site tells you a different story. Though latest Data is of 2015, Gujarat is not among top state in volume & percentage. As figures below confirms it’s not even top 10 in Volume for case registered for crime against Schedule Castes. (Source NCRB 2015)

In light of such an atrociously questionable claim in a poll bound high stake state, it was prudent to search for motive & background of the person making such a claim and the organization behind it.

A general background probe for Navsarjan Trust tells a shocking tale. One that makes me wonder why their shoddy statistics formed the basis of an entire article to begin with.

Its FCRA license was cancelled in Dec 2016, due to adverse Intelligence input. Cancelling the FCRA license of Navsarjan Trust, the MHA in its order stated:

“Navsarjan Trust has come to adverse notice for its undesirable activities aimed to affect prejudicially harmony between religious, racial, social, linguistic, regional groups, castes or communities.”

This cancellation was protested by usual civil society members.

Employees of his trust allege that Martin Macwan used FCRA cancellation to misuse Rs 22 Crore of trust money in kitty. Even before FCRA cancellation, 7 former employees filed a police complaint, accusing the trustees of siphoning off the Rs 30 Crore that was meant for salaries of the employees in the last decade.

Financial chicanery apart, Martin Macwan helped organize protest for (now proven) staged drama of Dalit youths being beaten for sporting a moustache in Gujarat. Even last year, after the unfortunate Una incident Martin Macwan helped organize Protest across the state. The protest was planned by UDALS (led by former Aam Aadmi party member, Subodh Parmar & Jignesh Mevani). Incidentally Jignesh has ‘high regards’ for Martin Macwan.

Last year Martin Macwan, along with Congress spokesperson Tahseen Poonawala & Mohanbhai Hamir Bhai Bedva (an alleged victim of such violence) filed a reckless PIL challenging cow protection law so that alleged cow vigilante can stop. Central Government had to explain to the petitioners that “cow vigilantism was a state subject in which it did not have a role to play”.

Martin Macwan gained fame from helping the Government in abolishing manual scavenging. While this was commendable work, the Evangelical Connection of this mission also has to be scrutinised.

This year, after Yogi Adityanath became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, opposition tried multiple times to take advantage of incidents where Dalits were involved to create a narrative that Dalits are being victimized after BJP government came to power.

Two such incidents – first, the attack on Dalits in Saharanpur and second, incident where in the month of May, soap & shampoo were allegedly distributed among Musahar Dalit families of a village in Kushinagar district before Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was to visit the village.

Martin Macwan organized few Dalits to travel from Gujarat to Lucknow to handover Soap to UP CM Yogi in protest; they were detained in Mathura before they could reach Lucknow.

Also, for Saharanpur incident Martin Macwan organized various public meetings in Gujarat. At Navsarjan trust’s blog it was said that “these are being organized to “expose” the political conspiracy of silence in the wake of increasing number of caste attacks after the BJP came to power in India, and now in UP.”

At other times Martin Macwan organized protests in support of absurd #NotInMyName Campaign, where among other slogans, the famed “Le ke rahenge azadi” sloganeering was reported.

While Protest is an important measure of discontent within society, it can also be seen as a form of politics by other means. A lot of protest be it moustache issue which turned out to be staged, or Soap distribution issue in UP, which was basically done by local administration & UP CM was not even aware of it, doesn’t warrant any protests or politicization.

What we see is a repeated attempt to use any genuine or fake incident related to Dalits (in Gujarat & other BJP ruled state like UP) being used by Navsarjan & Macwan to selectively target BJP.

A person with questionable background, using genuine Dalit issues for the motive like countrywide uprising is an alarming premise. Navsarjan Trust’s undesirable activities for widening rift and promoting enmity in harmonious relationship in society was confirmed by Intelligence agencies while cancelling its FCRA License.

If we sum up these events and facts, it’s apparent that Martin Macwan and Navsarjan Trust is heavily biased against BJP and has a political agenda. It is also under suspicion for quoting wrong figures & using fake incidents to milk Dalit fault line and to instigate Dalits to vote in favor of specific party (usually Anti-BJP).

The facts here beg an important question – why was ‘The Wire’ promoting suspicious statistics propagated by a questionable trust that is creating fault lines within the country and has already been flagged by the intelligence agencies? This, as many times before, raises serious doubts on the editorial standards of ‘The Wire’ and its intentions of peddling an agenda that might not always be in the best interest of the nation, intentionally or unintentionally.

Hardik Patel’s treatment of the Congress shows how low the party has fallen

Abhishek Banerjee
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Hardik Patel’s treatment of the Congress shows how low the party has fallen

Once upon a time, Zail Singh declared that he was ready to pick up a broom and sweep the floor if Indira Gandhi so commanded him. He was made President of India.

How… O how the mighty have fallen.

This is how Rahul Gandhi and the Congress treat Hardik Patel.

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This is how Hardik Patel treats the Congress party.

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They laid out an invitation for him at a press conference held in their party HQ. He called them common thieves.

Again, Hardik Patel is an absolute nobody. He will disappear from the news the day after the Gujarat elections. That Rahul Gandhi and the Congress would let themselves be treated thus by Hardik Patel says a lot about the condition of the Congress Party.

They say Hardik Patel might have actually met Rahul Gandhi. We see some sort of an evidence of that via a hotel CCTV footage. From what I hear, Hardik denies this and he actually might sue the hotel for releasing CCTV footage that damaged his reputation.

There you go: A tiny leader like Hardik Patel feels that his reputation (what reputation?) would be damaged by meeting Rahul. That is the amount of stigma attached to the Congress today. No matter how much they try to polish it, the taint of lakh crore corruption scams won’t wash off easily.

Meanwhile, the media is generally busy fooling itself with stories of the three musketeers (Hardik, Alpesh, Jignesh) joining hands to propel Rahul into beating the BJP in Gujarat.

Only a few sensible ones, have seen the writing on the wall and have devoted themselves to the imminent need to console Rahul baba after defeat in Gujarat. See this:

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Excellent work, Javed Ansari. You have blazed a trail for other flatterers to follow. Instead of bothering with the election, focus on consoling Rahul baba that he’s done well.

On counting day, don’t focus so much on the data coming from the election results. Focus instead on creating a “mahaul” in TV studios that Rahul baba has won. 

These type of journalists may soon even come out with stories like: Even if Hardik Patel calls him a thief, Rahul Gandhi has still earned Hardik’s respect.

Gujarat ATS arrests 2 ISIS terrorists suspected of planning an attack during Gujarat Assembly elections

OpIndia Staff
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Gujarat ATS arrests 2 ISIS terrorists suspected of planning an attack during Gujarat Assembly elections

On Wednesday the Election Commission announced that Gujarat’s assembly election would be held on 9th, 14th December and the results will be declared on 18th of the month.

Soon after the dates were announced, it was reported that Gujarat’s Anti-terror squad had successfully nullified a potential terror threat which was looming over the assembly elections.

As per reports, Gujarat ATS arrested two suspected ISIS operatives who were planning a terror attack in the state during the assembly elections. These two operatives were believed to have been in touch with the terror group via social media.

The two arrested have been identified as Kasim Stimberwala and Ubaid Baig Mirza. Kasim a resident of Surat used to work as a laboratory technician in a private hospital and Ubaid is a lawyer who also owned a hotel. The reports also claimed that these operatives were planning a lone wolf attack on a Jewish synagogue situated in Ahmedabad’s Khadia area. As per the police they were either planning a blast or planned to indiscriminately fire at the religious shrine.

Both these operatives are believed to have been in contact with Shafi Armar alias Zahed-al-Hindi, an Indian ISIS handler based in Afghanistan. As per the ATS officials, after the arrests, they also managed to recover cell phones, pen drive, laptops from the duo which will now be sent to a forensic laboratory to acquire details about their handlers and contacts.

Similarly on Wednesday, three men were arrested from North Kerala for suspected ISIS links. These men identified as Mithilaj KC, Abdul Razak KV and Rasheed MV were stopped from going to Syria four months back.

As per the Kannur police, they failed to reach Syria as they deported back to India from Turkey. As a result, the police closely started tracking their online activities which included being active on ISIS related websites. They have now been booked under the anti-terror law, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

We had reported a few months back how ISIS and its ideology was gaining a foothold in India, which included operatives planning attacks in various parts of the country and travelling to ISIS controlled territories to fight for the terror group.

How Leftists come together to save one of their own accused of sexual harassment

Nirwa Mehta
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How Leftists come together to save one of their own accused of sexual harassment

Earlier this week, Raya Sarkar, a law student with Indian roots based in the US put out a list of Indian academics who have been accused of sexual harassment. She had posted it on Facebook account and the post soon went viral with many people reaching out to her speaking about their own experiences with abusive professors in prominent Indian universities.

Meanwhile, champion of naming and shaming sexual harassers, the Leftists cabal have taken it upon themselves to prove how this naming and shaming is ‘blackening faces’ and was uneasy with the name and shame list. In a statement, the Leftist cabal has come out in open to support one of their own.

The statement reads,

As feminists, we have been part of a long struggle to make visible sexual harassment at the workplace, and have worked with the movement to put in place systems of transparent and just procedures of accountability. We are dismayed by the initiative on Facebook, in which men are being listed and named as sexual harassers with no context or explanation. One or two names of men who have been already found guilty of sexual harassment by due process, are placed on par with unsubstantiated accusations. It worries us that anybody can be named anonymously, with lack of answerability. Where there are genuine complaints, there are institutions and procedures, which we should utilize. We too know the process is harsh and often tilted against the complainant. We remain committed to strengthening these processes. At the same time, abiding by the principles of natural justice, we remain committed to due process, which is fair and just.
This manner of naming can delegitimize the long struggle against sexual harassment, and make our task as feminists more difficult.
We appeal to those who are behind this initiative to withdraw it, and if they wish to pursue complaints, to follow due process, and to be assured that they will be supported by the larger feminist community in their fight for justice.

The statement is singed by 12 self proclaimed feminists including Ayesha Kidwai, the Leftist professor from JNU, who believes she is a parallel judiciary by leading a public inquiry against the Vice Chancellor of JNU, Nivedita Menon, who believes Kashmir is not an integral part of India, Vrinda Grover, the advocate who rallied to save Yakub Memon and Kavita Krishnan, pro-Naxal ideologue activist who tried to pass off Diwali as a non-religious festival.

While it is ironical that Ayesha Kidwai, the one leading a kangaroo court against sitting JNU VC wants to push for legal and due process, Kavita’s hypocrisy got called out since she has in the past very vocally advocated naming and shaming the perpetrators of sexual harassment. She argues that we cannot afford to throw away due process and adopt vigilantism.


Of course, Twitter was quick to point out her hypocrisy.


She also thought naming and shaming is one of the ways to make Internet a safe space for women.


One is forced to ask – Why keep quiet now? Why did JNU Teachers Association rally behind Arshad Alam, a professor at JNU who was found guilty of sexually molesting a student?

Perhaps one of the reasons could be what this Twitter user pointed out.


This may not be farfetched since most in the original list put up by Raya Sarkar, whose Facebook account is now restored after being blocked by Facebook, are Leftist professors. The left ecosystem does indeed look out for one of their own, even if it goes against everything they pretend to stand for.

Chhattisgarh govt helps provide citizenship to 60 Pakistani Hindus, will further aid 600-700 such Hindus

OpIndia Staff
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Chhattisgarh govt helps provide citizenship to 60 Pakistani Hindus, will further aid 600-700 such Hindus

Raman Singh the current chief minister of Chhattisgarh on Wednesday announced that his government had given clearance for 60 Pakistani Hindu migrants to get Indian citizenship. He also asserted that the remaining 600-700 such Hindu migrants too would soon be provided citizenship.

As per Raman Singh, it was possible as for the 1st time the Central government had given the state government authority to take such actions. Raman Singh also sympathised with the plight of the migrants by stating that these people who ran away from Sindh after having suffered and getting treated badly (by the locals. He added that they finally received Indian citizenship 30-40 years later. He further pointed out that the people who were oppressed in Pakistan have now got due respect.

The Raman Singh government had reportedly sent the applications of about 600 such Hindus for registration out of which 60-70 have now been cleared.

This isn’t the only time Pakistani Hindus have been provided such a citizenship. We had reported in July that as many as 114 people from Pakistan, most of them Hindus, had received Indian citizenship in Gujarat. This was considered possible as a result of the Modi government simplifying rules for Pakistani Hindus in exile to get Indian citizenship.

These simplification of rules include:

  • Collector’s office being given powers to process applications seeking citizenship which earlier needed pleas to be made to the Home Ministry. A renunciation certificate too was compulsory from the home country for getting citizenship, all of which has now been doe away with.
  • The registration fee to apply for Indian citizenship has been reduced to as low as Rs 100 from the earlier amount of Rs 15,000.

Even though the rules have been simplified, it hasn’t meant that Hindu migrants have started to enjoy safe haven in this country. In August it was reported that 9 Hindu families were deported back to Pakistan even though the Rajasthan High Court had given clear orders against their deportation.

Sexual harassment allegations against Mahesh Murthy: Did we have our own ‘Weinstein’ moment too?

OpIndia Staff
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Sexual harassment allegations against Mahesh Murthy: Did we have our own ‘Weinstein’ moment too?

Even as people are raising their voices against the sexual harassment they had faced in their lives with the #MeToo campaign, more and more skeletons are tumbling out of Indian corporate cupboards. Twitter user Pankaj Mishra, founder of technology website FactorDaily, in a series of tweets accused venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy who is also an investor in the Left leaning self-proclaimed ‘media watchdog’, Newslaundry.

In a series of tweets, Mishra accuses Murthy of sexual misconduct for years.


He cites a FactorDaily investigative piece which talks about alleged sexual misconduct of Murthy. Amongst others, author Rashmi Bansal and a woman journalist have accused Murthy of inappropriate behaviour, ranging from inappropriate electronic messages to verbal advances to physical grabbing. Murthy had also allegedly sent an inappropriate message, “Hey babe, one’s supposed to celebrate Diwali by blowing a pataka. So can I go down on you please. :-)” to a woman government officer in Delhi.

Pankaj then talks about a journalist, who was only 19 when she was allegedly harassed by Murthy.


He further says that many people know of Murthy’s alleged misbehaviour, but no one has taken a stand against him except an IT giant.


A woman executive was allegedly asked “are you a virgin” by Murthy back in 2006, and then the company blacklisted Murthy’s digital media company, Pinstorm.

Whoever wrote on Murthy’s alleged misconduct, Murthy sought to implead them in defamation case.


On his part, Murthy rejects all these charges as “absolute and complete lies” and a planned movement to discredit him. He is also reported to have been planning to take legal recourse, but details are not available about whom he suspects to be behind this movement to discredit him.

Interestingly, Newslaundry has never reported on Murthy’s alleged misconduct and hasn’t even carried his denials. The portal had infamously tried to defend even Tarun Tejpal by questioning the woman who had made the charges, but has kept mum on allegations against Murthy. In case the portal carries any views in support of their investor, we will update this article in spirit of fairness.

Manish Mundra the man behind Newton and Masaan speaks to OpIndia

Hemant Bijapurkar
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Manish Mundra the man behind Newton and Masaan speaks to OpIndia

Manish Mundra [1][2], is a trendsetter in many ways when it comes to Hindi Cinema. Manish, a well established movie producer, has produced acclaimed movies like Ankhon Dekhi, Masaan and most recently Newton which became India’s official entry to the Oscars this year.

His journey into movie production too is nothing short of a movie script. A person with humble beginnings, while growing up he used to sell soft drinks after school to support his family. All this while movies always remained close to his heart and getting into the film industry was always a childhood dream for him. After completing his education he decided to climb the corporate ladder and is currently the CEO, MD Africa of Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals.

His entry into Indian Cinema was a result of a tweet sent out by film-maker Rajat Kapoor, lamenting the fact that he wasn’t getting a financier his upcoming movie. Manish replied affirming that he would help produce the movie and this marked his entry in the world of story telling. In 2014 he founded his production house Drishyam Films had has since then never looked back.

He agreed to give OpIndia an interview and spoke about a wide variety of topics like content driven movies, the changing face of Indian cinema and also shared his thoughts on India’s economic and political scenario.

Following is the transcript of the interview:

Hi Mr Manish Mundra thank you so much for agreeing to the interview. What is your family and the movie fraternity’s reaction to Newton becoming India’s official entry into the Oscars:

Manish Mundra: Everyone was happy and excited, we have been pursuing this type of cinema for the last 3-4 years, I am proud of all the films and I was elated when Newton was recognised. Soon my family, friends came to know about it and they too were happy and celebrated as if we had won the Oscars (laughs). So we had to calm them down and explained that we need to do a lot of hard work to enter the final top 5 nominations.

You have been trend setter in Bollywood by making content driven films or those films where script is the most important aspect. So what was your thought process behind choosing this kind of an outlook and are you surprised that Bollywood has somewhat overlooked this aspect:

Manish Mundra: First of all I would want to to call it Hindi cinema and not Bollywood, we have our own identity. I think Hindi cinema had a big stage in 70’s and 80’s equivalent to its counterparts in Europe and America. But from the 90’s we faltered and stuck to the easy way like making formula films without working hard on scripting and technicalities, which resulted in average films. That’s where I felt that we need to focus on this segment of smaller films and on relationship stories than grandeur.

Apart from these content driven stories, another trendsetter of sorts has been you giving chances to newcomers who are trying to get a foothold into the industry. So what would you say are the advantages of having them in movies:

Manish Mundra: I, being a newcomer in the film industry, I felt that newcomers have that drive, courage to go the extra mile, listen and learn which is a requirement for the kind of cinema we are making. Also if you are a newcomer and want to prove a point you would really want to experiment.

So do you think that it is an advantage to not have a big cinematic star so that the focus ultimately remains on the content:

Manish Mundra: Yeah. I firmly believe that the whole idea of star driven films is wrong, it should be the story which drives the movie and actors should come second. In India though the trend is that you create a star and follow whatever he/she is comfortable playing. So audience whether they are aware or not, are being cheated. My idea was that let the story be the star and it should drive and attract the actors.

I guess you are one of the few production houses in India who are trying out such experiments:

Manish Mundra: Yes. Like Ankhon Dekhi was based out of Delhi, Masan was based out of Banaras, Newton based out of Chhattisgarh and my upcoming film Rukh you can paste it in any part of the country and still be able to relate to it. So we go to various places of India to see what the place talks about and it character.

Another very important aspect of you life has been your humble beginnings so by shooting in such diverse locations of India do you try to portray these in your movies as well:

Manish Mundra: Yes. We should remember where we have come from and there are a lot of untold stories India which need to be explored. So there is definitely a connect that those stories which have that humility.

Another possibly erroneous perception attached with the type of movies you make is, people wonder what would be the commercial viability of those ventures. So would you like to set the record straight regarding that:

Manish Mundra: I am a commercial guy myself. The films which are generally called commercial are more speculative in the sense that 95-97% of the so called commercial films fail in terms of making money. So any business which has such a high probability of losing money is a speculation. Also, out of the movies which do make money, almost half of them are star driven. What we are making is true commercial cinema in the sense we are careful about not going over budget and have a very rational production, marketing and advertising expenses. Hence apart from a couple of movies, we have been able to either break even or make money.

Another question which arises with regards to your movies is the Audience. So is the audience responding with regards to them and would such movies overtake the star driven movies in the future:

Manish Mundra: I strongly feel so. With the advent of digital media the audience has a larger access to the starts hence there isn’t a huge euphoria attached, which was the case 10-15 years back. So people will wait for the content and we have seen in a few instances that stars on their own cannot drive the film unless there is a story at the base of things. Second aspect is that the Indian audience also has a lot of exposure to International cinema and content so they now realise the superiority of that content. It is also true in the digital space the word of mouth spreads very fast so the news about a good film spreads like wildfire.

So the audience too has a voice now. Another aspect digitisation has brought forth are various live streaming platforms like Netflix, so are you planning for focusing on such content. That is you won’t be dependent on a cinema hall per say:

Manish Mundra: I agree that the life of cinema is going to be very difficult as people are getting good electronic gadgets to watch content at home. This poses a challenge that one needs to make good movies to pull people to cinema halls and competition always gives a better output in terms of good cinema. Also to directly answer your question, rightly I am focusing on making films and there would be a time when we can focus on making such live streaming content.

Another trend which you seem to have set is that you released Newton on a Monday and not a Friday:

Manish Mundra: I feel when you make a movie, you should be courageous enough to open it up for the reviewers hence they get a chance to judge the movie out way ahead of Friday which gives enough time for the audience to make their minds up by reading the reviews before the weekend. So its more of a strategic decision and we are also showing confidence that we are open to scrutiny.

To diversify things a bit, you obviously have been very successful in the corporate world, so what is your outlook on the current economic and political scenario of India:

Manish Mundra: I am very bullish about the economic and political scenario of India as after years we have got a stable government, which has a visionary leader. I feel we are moving in the right direction with strategic and structural changes in place as far as the economy is concerned and we are poised for a boost. I feel that the parallel economy of the country is demolished and most people have moved towards digitisation. Due to the change in the taxation structure and the widening of the tax net, the government should work on reducing tax percentages. All this added with the lower global fuel prices, puts a lot of funds at the government’s disposal to focus on social and infrastructural reforms. So I feel that the tough times are behind us and the next 3-4 years would be effective in terms of economic growth.

Do have any expectation from the government when it comes to cinema:

Manish Mundra: The government should try and focus on increasing the number of screens, providing enough investment avenues for international investors and increase FDI in cinema halls, establish more world class film making institutes. The entertainment businesses have a huge scope when it comes to foreign exchange, talent development and youth empowerment.

What do you think the future holds for Hindi cinema in the next 5-10 years 

Manish Mundra: Hindi cinema has ample scope (to grow) as almost 80% of the Indian population understands Hindi which translates to about 80 crore people. But less number of cinema screens pose a problem. So I feel the government should focus and deregulate the screen licensing laws so that we can reach a larger audience.

So moving towards a bit of a lighter content, movies have always been close to your heart so do you have any other passions apart from movies:

Manish Mundra: Yes, I love painting, writing poems, I love photography which I have been learning

So, what would you say is the favourite cinematic memory of your childhood:

Manish Mundra: All Amitabh Bachchan movies attracted me to follow cinema

Before parting, would you like to give any other message for our viewers:

Manish Mundra: We want the audience to go and watch Rukh which is releasing on 27th October. Its an poetic experiment film and is directed by Atanu Mukherjee so we need a lot of love from the people.

I hope that Rukh is a huge success, I wish you all the best and thank you for speaking to OpIndia

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