Union Minister Babul Supriyo on Wednesday called for a temporary ban on Pakistani artists for working in the Indian cinema.
Supriyo, a singer-turned-politician, had said Rahat Fateh Ali Khan’s voice in the song Ishtehar from Welcome To New York must be removed and dubbed by someone else as he was not able to comprehend the need or desire to cross the border for entertainment content at a time when tensions on the India-Pakistan border had escalated.
The line between art and politics in India is already blurry. Actors regularly swan into parliamentary seats and lend their colossal fame to one candidate or another. Inevitably, politics intrudes the other way. But the cold shoulder shown to Khan and other Pakistanis has kicked off a spirited debate in the Indian media and among Bollywood’s brightest stars.
What I fail to understand is that after being banned several times by the Indian government, why doesn’t Pakistan take a stand and boycott their content. Why are we still promoting their industry by watching Indian movies? Why can’t we as patriotic Pakistanis stand up for our respect and stop watching their content. Pakistani cinema has grown tremendously in the couple of years and thus our artists and investors should concentrate on Pakistani content rather than that of the neighboring country.
