The new movie “Pathan” raises a dispute between the star Shahrukh Khan and the Hindu right

The famous actor has been absent from cinema screens since 2018 (Sanjay Kanogia / AFP)

Bollywood star returns Shahrukh Khan (57 years) to the screen, following a four-year absence from the cinematic business, with the massively produced action movie “Pathan”, which sparked the discontent of the Hindu right.

Pathan, which was released in cinemas on Wednesday, on the eve of the Republic Day celebrations in… Indiaa controversy between Hindu extremist groups who protested once morest one of the songs in the film.

The song features actress Deepika Padukone, along with Indian action movie star John Abraham, wearing a saffron-colored swimsuit, a color that carries sacred meanings in the Hindu religion.

And local media reported that activists belonging to a Hindu extremist group demonstrated on Wednesday in Bangalore, holding banners reading “For the Pathan District”, and burned pictures of the film’s advertisement, chanting slogans once morest it. On Tuesday, the state of Bihar in the east of the country witnessed similar protests, while last Friday, demonstrations were recorded in the state of Assam as well.

A group of people, wearing T-shirts with the image of the film and playing drums, gathered in front of cinemas in Bombay.

And the news channel “NDTV” indicated that the number of tickets sold for the premiere of the movie reached 500,000 tickets.

Shah Rukh Khan is one of the most important stars of Indian cinema and has millions of fans in India and abroad. His name has been prominent in Bollywood for more than 30 years, and he is known by the nicknames “King Khan” and “Badshah”.

However, his return to cinemas comes following a series of personal and professional setbacks. The last film in which he participated in 2018, “Zero”, suffered a commercial failure, and his son was arrested last year in a drug case that was later dropped.

Khan belongs to the Muslim minority in India. Voices were raised to ban the movie if the song was not removed from it. The boycott of Pathan hashtag (#BoycottPathaan) spread on Twitter as part of campaigns that were recently repeated on social media targeting some films.

Actors Aamir Khan and Ranbir Kapoor, in turn, faced calls to boycott the works in which they participated.

Shahrukh Khan, who plays a spy role in the new work, notes that 25 cinemas with one screen reopened their doors on Wednesday in various parts of the country thanks to the film.

Last Tuesday, he tweeted, in Hindi, on Twitter: “I grew up watching movies exclusively in one-screen cinemas. It’s an amazing experience,” adding: “I pray that you and I will achieve success. Congratulations on reopening the doors of your theaters.”

In recent years, Bollywood has faced difficulties in producing blockbusters, a genre that has achieved great success in India and abroad.

Bollywood productions in the Hindi language face a major challenge in front of films produced in other languages, such as “RR”, which won the “Golden Globe” award this month, and appeared on Tuesday in the list of Oscar nominations in the Best Song category.

Film critic and analyst Taran Adarsh ​​praised “Pathan”, writing across “Twitter”: “In Pathan, all the ingredients for success: strength, style, level, songs, spirituality, substance, surprises, and above all, Shah Rukh Khan returning for revenge .. The film will be the first huge work of the year 2023.”

(AFP)