At around 1.30 pm on Friday, as Ek Chhotisi Love Story was unspooling in some theatres across Mumbai, the film’s lead actress, Manisha Koirala, walked into Matoshree in Bandra for a meeting with Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray. An hour later, the newest Sainik convert walked out with a saffron tilak on her forehead and beamed: ‘‘I am here to thank him for all he has done for me.’’ She had reason to: Sainiks had already begun vandalising theatres screening the film, tearing down posters, roughing up managers and scaring away film-goers.
The film opened in several theatres despite a stay order on the screening from the Bombay High Court. And the Sainiks were out in full strength to express their outrage at this contempt. At Gemini theatre in suburban Bandra, a mob of around 100 Sainiks led by local unit chief Anil Parab forcibly stopped the screening in the afternoon, broke a glass door, roughed up the owner and drove people out of the hall.
‘‘I had just entered the hall and was looking for my ticket. Suddenly, someone hit me hard on my leg. There was chaos all around,’’ said a viewer as he limped out of the theatre.
Hema Malini blames actresses
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BHUBANESHWAR: Actress and chairperson of the National Film Development Corporation Hema Malini on Friday blamed the actresses more than the film-makers for controversies relating to their alleged exploitation. “It is the actress who allows herself to get into such trouble and therefore should not complain about being exploited,” she said here. “It all depends on them (actresses)…. How they project themselves,” Hema Malini, who is on a visit to Orissa, said. (PTI) |
‘‘I knew that this complex, being the closest, would be targeted. The police were here but they only stood and watched,’’ said Manoj Desai, owner of the multiplex. ‘‘I have decided not to screen this film at my multiplex ever again.’’ Desai reportedly spoke to Uddhav Thackeray and cancelled all the subsequent shows on the latter’s instructions.
The Sena, in fact, seems to taking an inordinate interest in the film and in supporting Koirala. Uddhav has called for a meeting with the distributors of the film. The party will reportedly request distributors not to screen the film without Koirala’s permission.
The Sainik solidarity follows an hour-long meeting between Koirala, her counsel Satish Maneshinde and Thackeray. This is Koirala’s second meeting with Thackeray on the issue. The meeting was arranged by Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP, Sanjay Nirupam.
Two days ago on Thackeray’s directives, a Sena Member of the Legislative Council, Dr Neelam Gorhe, had escorted her to the office of the State Commission for Women, to protest certain scenes in the film that used a body double.
Nirupam, in fact, told The Indian Express that it was at Thackeray’s behest that the actress had gone to court and got a stay on the screening. ‘‘Balasaheb called Satish Maneshinde over to Matoshree and asked him to take up the case and get a stay. Balasaheb says that the woman is fighting for her dignity and this dignity has to be safeguarded at all costs. He has requested the distributors not to screen the film till Manisha gives the green signal.’’ Maneshinde added that they would file defamation cases against anyone screening the film without the court’s order.
While in New Delhi, the National Commission for Women also said it would file a ‘‘comprehensive litigation’’ in the Supreme Court over the case and such incidents to demand strict enforcement of the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. ‘‘The Manisha Koirala incident is a pointed case and we will talk about the larger issue of implication and ramification of the Act. We need to look into the larger ambit of Constitutional provisions in the case,’’ NCW chairperson Poornima Advani told reporters.
The Nepal Sena, a wing of the Sena comprising members of the Nepali community, also declared that they will launch an agitation in Mumbai if the film is screened against Koirala’s wishes.