Yash Raj have always been known for their PR skills and it comes as a no surprise when the renowned production giant didn’t think twice before indulging in some serious crisis management soon after realising that their latest release Aaja Nachle had triggered some serious controversy!
It all started when UP Chief Minister Mayawati banned the film in her state, claiming that the film allegedly promoted casteism. She objected to the line ‘Samjhe mochi bhi khudko sonar hai’ (even a cobbler considers himself as a jeweller) from the title track of the film, saying it will hurt the sentiments of Dalits in India. She had requested the PM of the country to even call for a country-wide ban on the film. This plea of hers was however overruled.
Director Anil Mehta apologised and even showed his willingness to chop off the line from the song. Madhuri too played safe and showed her concern when she went on record saying, “I didn’t scan through the lyrics of the song.” Now, it was the turn of Yash Raj to speak up.
YRF sent a press release to us stating, “Yash Raj films apologises to all the people whose sentiments have been hurt with the lyrics of one line in the title track of Aaja Nachle . It was not our intention to hurt anybody. We have taken immediate steps to rectify the damage caused and have instructed all our distributors and exhibitors to delete the objectionable words from the song as of last night.”
Yash Chopra, Chairman Yash Raj Films said, “It was not our intention to hurt the feelings of any individual or community of our great nation. If we have inadvertently hurt the sentiments of anybody I apologise for the same and have taken immediate remedial action by deleting the line from the prints of Aaja Nachle from all over the country. This line has been deleted in all the theatres from today. Yash Raj Films makes family oriented films and propagates Indian culture through them and would never do anything that is detrimental to the sentiments of our people.”
We spoke to Piyush Mishra, the very person who has been accused of penning down the controversial lyrics of Aaja Nachle . He clarified himself by saying, “As Anil and Yash Raj have been saying, we had no intention of hurting the sentiments of any caste. However, if my lyrics have hurt the sentiments of anyone, then I offer my sincere apology. I have also written for Black Friday and even that film had run into controversy but the case was different there. That film’s topic itself was a little sensitive as it dealt with the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai. As far as Aaja Nachle is concerned, I’d like to repeat that I am sorry and would like to apologize to those who’ve been hurt.”
All things said and done, we couldn’t help but notice how the politicians who show heartfelt concern for the sensibilities of their countrymen, otherwise never even bother to hear out their problems! A nation-wide research by an Indian news channel proved that the injustice against Dalits in UP has in fact soared in the past few years, under Mayawati’s regime!
With elections round the corner, Aaja Nachle may be a publicity stunt by the politicians involved. However as they say, negative publicity is better than no publicity in the show business, we are sure that the controversy will help the film do better! The music stores, all over the country have even claimed that the sale of the audio CD’s of the film have seen a rise, post its alleged ban!
No comments:
Post a Comment