Recently, singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya lashed out at Karan Johar and Mahesh Bhatt on Twitter, owing to the deadly Uri attacks. He blamed the filmmakers for roping in Pakistani talent. Now, recent reports suggest that the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has threatened Pakistani artists to leave India within 48 hours.
Amey Khopkar of the MNS Chitrapat Sena said in a statement:
We gave a 48 hour deadline to Pakistani actors and artists to leave India or MNS will push them out.
He passed on this threat to filmmakers and producers who cast Pakistani artists:
Pakistani kalakaar toh maar khaayenge hi, saath mein jo yahan producer/director hain unko bhi peetenge. (Not only will we beat up Pakistani artists but we’ll also not spare the producers/directors who cast them)
This is not the first time Pakistani artists have received such a threat. Legendary Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali‘s concert in Mumbai was called off by Shiv Sena twice due to a similar threat. The list of Pakistani artists who are strongly associated with Bollywood currently include, Fawad Khan, Ali Zafar, Mahira Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Imran Abbas and Mawra Hocane. We wonder if this decision will jeopardize their Bollywood career.