Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party over the roaring success of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer ‘Pathaan’.
“Pathaan becoming a superhit film is the victory of a positive ideology in India and the world. It is the general public’s befitting reply to BJP’s negative politics”, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister tweeted.
Directed by Siddharth Anand, the spy thriller has managed to rake in nearly ₹300 crore at the box office and is expected to shatter more records. The film had landed in controversy before its release, with several right wing outfits objecting to the saffron bikini worn by Deepika Padukone in a song sequence. BJP leaders including Narottam Mishra and Ram Kadam had accused the makers of hurting religious sentiments.
Later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked the BJP workers and leaders to refrain from making unnecessary remarks on movies, saying such irrelevant issues put the party’s development agenda on the backburner.
However, the boycott call failed to dent ‘Pathaan’s run at the theatres as it shattered records ever since it released on January 25. The film has collected a whopping worldwide collection of ₹542 crore in the past five days.
During an event yesterday, Shah Rukh Khan addressed the controversy which had hit the film before its release. “We are all playing characters to make you happy. If we say things in the film, none of them are meant to hurt any sentiment or anybody. It is just entertainment”, he had said.
Khan, who returned to the silver screen after a long gap of four years, plays a spy who is tasked to stop a rogue-spy Jim (John Abraham) from executing a deadly attack on India. Deepika Padukone plays a former agent of Pakistan’s spy agency ISI. The film also features Salman Khan in a cameo role, who reprises his role of Tiger.
