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Mumbai: “Uddhav Thackeray, tujhe kya lagta hai… aaj mera ghar toota hai, kal tera ghamand tootega…”
Poised on a sofa in a floral print saree and staring on the digital camera straight, actor Kangana Ranaut didn’t skip a beat in a video assertion Wednesday as she advised Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena head Uddhav Thackeray that his conceitedness will probably be shattered similar to her home.
This controversial assertion got here in the direction of the tip of the day’s potboiler, which noticed Ranaut returning to Mumbai amid protests by Shiv Sainiks, rigidity at her Bandra workplace with the Mumbai civic physique taking a bulldozer to it, a fast court docket order that gave the actor interim reduction, and far politics over these happenings.
Because the story hurtled in the direction of a climax, Ranaut’s assertion left the plot hanging for a attainable sequel.
Given the Shiv Sena’s lengthy historical past of a love-hate relationship with Bollywood, there may simply as simply be one, if not with Ranaut, with another person.
The Sena has continuously clashed with Bollywood, proper from protesting towards Tere Mere Sapne in 1971 to Tiger Zinda Hai in 2017. On the identical time, the get together’s leaders have been the thickest of mates with some Bollywood personalities.
Sena founder Bal Thackeray’s night classes on the terrace of his Bandra residence, Matoshree, having fun with heat lager beer and a cigar with Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar, have been a lot talked about within the Sixties and Seventies. Now, scion Aaditya Thackeray’s exchanges with actor Disha Patani make information.
It’s this oxymoron that greatest explains the Shiv Sena’s relationship with Mumbai’s glamorous Bollywood trade.
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The origin of relationship
Shiv Sena’s first skirmish with Bollywood was in 1971. Indignant get together employees and leaders made their method to Dadar’s Kohinoor theatre to protest after the cinema corridor changed Krishna Kondke’s Marathi movie Songadya with Dev Anand-starrer Tere Mere Sapne, launched by the actor’s banner Navketan.
Krishna Kondke, popularly generally known as Dada Kondke, in turn, helped the Shiv Sena launch its chitrapat shakha, or movie division, with Gajanan Shirke as its chairman.
“It was maybe for the primary time {that a} political get together had a movie division. The Shiv Sena anyway had a goon-like, aggressive identification. Again within the day, the get together’s chitrapat shakha was identified to go to movie units, extort cash,” mentioned a former journalist who didn’t want to be named.
Outdated-time Shiv Sainiks say the division was a way of making certain illustration for the Marathi talking inhabitants in Mumbai’s movie trade, consistent with the get together’s ‘Marathi Manoos’ agenda.
“In these days, Hindi movie producers used to e-book theatres for his or her movies for months collectively. Our Marathi movies would battle to succeed in the viewers. There was no tv, Web or the likes of Netflix and YouTube, so if Marathi movies have been out of theatres, they have been out for good. Our job was to get justice for them,” mentioned a Sena functionary, who has been a former MLA.
The rising battles
Within the 5 a long time since then, the Sena has usually held Bollywood to ransom, blocking movie releases on points which have fashioned the get together’s core political agenda — primarily batting for Marathi pleasure and posturing towards something to do with Pakistan.
“Bal Thackeray had a formidable, bigger than life, menacing persona. The Shiv Sena too was identified to be aggressive. So, the understanding, even amongst Bollywood personalities, was that to stay in Mumbai you must bow down earlier than the Shiv Sena,” political commentator Hemant Desai mentioned.
“Now, the Shiv Sena has been controlling Mumbai’s civic physique for years, and movie makers have to take care of it for every kind of permissions. So, general, Bollywood thinks it’s higher to be within the get together’s good books,” he added.
For example, Bal Thackeray was given a personal screening of Mani Ratnam’s Bombay, based mostly on the 1993 Mumbai riots, earlier than the movie’s launch. The Sena supremo suggested a few changes that have been included within the movie.
Interfering with movies and Bollywood personalities was additionally an efficient approach for the Shiv Sena to seize eyeballs and additional its political agenda.
Sena leaders have protested towards movies comparable to Salman Khan-starrer Tiger Zinda Hai in 2017 as its producers booked most shows, leaving no area for Marathi motion pictures in multiplexes; My Title is Khan in 2010 because the lead actor Shah Rukh Khan had supported having Pakistani cricket gamers within the Indian Premier League, which the Shiv Sena disapproved of; and Deepa Mehta’s Hearth in 1998 and later Water in 2006, the former for portraying a lesbian relationship and the latter for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.
In 2015, after stopping Pakistani Ghazal singer Ghulam Ali from performing in Mumbai, the Sena had additionally threatened to disrupt any movies of Pakistani actors Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan.
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Bal Thackeray’s Bollywood friendships
In 2012, as information got here in about Bal Thackeray’s demise, former actor Saira Banu was mulling over how she ought to share the information along with her husband, veteran actor Dilip Kumar. “Balasaheb was near Dilip saheb, however sadly Dilip saheb is just not nicely because the previous two days…it is going to be a giant shock for him,” she was quoted as saying.
The bond was sturdy regardless of a significant fallout in 1998 when Thackeray demanded that the actor returns the Nishan-e-Pakistan award.
“Abhi chana bhi hain, beer bhi hain, lekin Dilip Kumar ke raaste badal gaye (There are snacks, there’s beer, however Dilip Kumar’s path has modified now),” Thackeray was quoted as having mentioned again then in Vaibhav Purandare’s Bal Thackeray and the Rise of the Shiv Sena.
“Balasaheb by no means let political variations intervene along with his friendships. Take Sharad Pawar for instance. It was the identical along with his Bollywood mates,” mentioned a senior Shiv Sena chief who didn’t want to be named.
“The relations have been and nonetheless are out of respect for one another. Bollywood personalities perceive that they’re dwelling in Mumbai and that they are going to be secure on this trade, on this metropolis, if they’ve the Shiv Sena’s help,” he added.
The Sena founder had a protracted checklist of mates from the trade — Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Manoj Kumar, Sunil Dutt, the three senior Kapoor brothers and Amitabh Bachchan, amongst others. For some, Thackeray, clad in his saffron gown with a rudraksh in his hand, magically made crushing issues disappear securing their gratitude for generations.
Bachchan has spoken about how Thackeray had his again when his title acquired embroiled within the Bofors rip-off, simply forward of the discharge of his movie, Shahenshah in 1988.
Thackeray can also be mentioned to have helped Sunil Dutt when his son, Sanjay Dutt, was accused within the 1993 blasts case for accepting weapons from gangster Abu Salem.
“These celebrities would usually go to the Thackeray residence and likewise developed a relation with Uddhav saheb, who was very younger at the moment. That’s how the relationships have continued over generations,” a Shiv Sena outdated timer mentioned.
“When Balasaheb was present process surgical procedure, Sanjay Dutt had introduced breakfast for the entire household on the hospital,” he added.
Additionally learn: Don’t curtail oxygen supply to MP during Covid crisis, Shivraj Chouhan tells Uddhav
The brand new gen and its networking
Now, Thackeray scion, Aaditya Thackeray, is carrying ahead Shiv Sena’s custom of networking with Bollywood personalities. The 30-year-old first-time MLA has usually collaborated with actors comparable to Akshay Kumar, Dino Morea, Tiger Shroff and Alia Bhatt for his pet initiatives.
Thackeray is alleged to be particularly good friends with Disha Patani, having been noticed along with her on events and being trolled for it.
The younger Thackeray had been recently mired in controversy resulting from his Bollywood connections, when a couple of Bharatiya Janata Celebration (BJP) leaders linked him to actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s demise. Thackeray, a state cupboard minister, dismissed it as “soiled politics”, however has been conspicuously silent over the whole Shiv Sena-Kangana Ranaut dispute.
Political analyst Desai mentioned, “Like Bal Thackeray, Aaditya too has deep networks with Bollywood, however there’s a slight distinction… With Balasaheb, there was an awe and an aura of worry. With Aaditya, it’s extra easygoing. It’s not fairly the identical.”
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