Politics interferes with entertainment, channel coerced into pulling out particular content

Politics interferes with entertainment, channel coerced into pulling out particular content

MUMBAI: The film wing of a regional political party claimed that it has ‘forced’ a TV channel not to telecast content which it felt was insulting Shivaji Maharaj.

MNS film wing's Amey Khopkar told PTI that he wrote to the channel, warning them against telecasting the programme which showed Shivaji Maharaj dancing with Afzal Khan.

He said that the channel had informed them that they had decided not to telecast the portion which was scheduled to be aired on 27 February and 28.

This is not the first time that the outfit used coercion to get its demands met. In September, Khopkar had given a 48-hour deadline to Pakistani artistes to leave India. The diktat had come at a time when relations between India and Pakistan were tense, after an attack by terrorists in Uri (Kashmir).

The political organisation, in January last year, had threatened to disrupt a proposed concert by ghazal maestro Ghulam Ali if it were to be held in Mumbai.

In October 2015, the MNS had 'disallowed' the screening of Pakistani actress Mahira Khan’s film “Bin Roye” in Maharashtra while, in 2012, the party's leader slammed singer Asha Bhosle for working with Pakistani singers on a TV show aired on a channel.

MNS Chitrapat Sena in 2016 protested against the Marathi dubbed version of “MS Dhoni: The Untold Story”, saying dubbed movies would eat into the business of Marathi films.

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