The power of attraction of Shah Rukh Khan, a romantic hero par excellence, overcame repeated calls for a boycott by Hindu extremists. After four years of absence, the Bollywood superstar is making his comeback on the screen, Wednesday January 25, in Pathan, by far the most anticipated Indian film of the year. However, even before its release, the film was the victim of a controversy that has become characteristic of the war waged by the Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party, BJP) of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi once morest the recalcitrant Bollywood who refuse the praises of power.
In a country plagued by the rise of religious intolerance, the title of the 146-minute film was already enough to annoy extremists. Pathan refers to descendants of Pashtuns from Afghanistan, predominantly Muslims. But it was the excerpt from one of the songs in the feature film that finally sparked the ire of Hindu nationalists in early December.
The video of Besharam Rang (“shameless color”, in Hindi), with the torrid choreography, appears inoffensive. It features actress Deepika Padukone in a saffron bikini, a color associated with Hinduism, and a Shah Rukh Khan dressed in a green shirt, interpreted as a reference to Islam, the actor’s religion. It did not take more for calls for a boycott to ignite social networks.
Hindu nationalists saw it as a lack of respect for their religion. Madhya Pradesh state interior minister Narottam Mishra, who is from the BJP, went so far as to threaten to have the film banned for this reason. In several states, the Bajrang Dal and the Vishva Hindu Parishad, two Hindu extremist groups linked to the BJP, have organized demonstrations once morest the film. At the beginning of January, in Gujarat, stronghold of the Indian Prime Minister, they destroyed posters of the film and uttered insults once morest the 57-year-old Muslim actor with a devastating smile. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi reportedly asked his party leaders to refrain from “unnecessary remarks” on films at the party’s annual executive meeting, January 16-17.
The face of multicultural India
Despite these calls for a boycott, the public is there. The day before the film’s release, Tuesday January 24, more than one million tickets had already been sold on the BookMyShow platform. For the occasion, several cinemas opened their doors at 6 am. “I finished my night shift at 4:30 a.m. and came straight here. I haven’t been to the cinema since Shah Rukh’s last film, in 2018”says Aakash Bhatia, in his thirties, as he waits for the 7.40 a.m. screening of the PVR cinema in Saket, South New Delhi, taking a photo of himself in front of the poster.
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