Salman Khan, Nana Patekar
Salman Khan, Nana Patekar

Singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya recently lashed out at Salman Khan and blamed him for ‘supporting terrorism’. Post the disastrous Uri attacks, news about banning Pakistani artists or doing away with any scenes in films that involve them has been doing the rounds. Salman recently voiced his opinion on the issue and reportedly stressed on the fact that Pakistani artists should not be banned.

According to a report in SpotboyE, he said:

There is a difference between terrorists and artists. Pakistani artists come with permission, terrorists don’t.

Nana Patekar recently reacted to the issue and was of the opinion that ‘Actors don’t matter, the country does.’

Watch the video where he addresses the issue in a statement:

He said:

Mujhe lagta hai Pakistan kalaakaar, yeh baatein baad mein, pehle mera desh. Hum kalaakaar desh ke saamne itne hai, khatmal ke tarah. Hamari keemat kucch nahi. Main sena mein tha, maine adhai saal wahaan guzaare hai toh mujhe pata hai sabse bade hero kaun hai. Hamare jo jawaan hai, inse bade koi hero ho nahi sakte duniya mein. Hum toh bahut mamuli nakli log hai, toh hum jo kucch bolte hai unke upar dhyaan mat do. Tumhe samajh mein aaya main kiske baare mein bol raha hoon? Unhi ke baare mein bol raha hoon. Hum jo patar patar karte hai, unke upar dhyaan mat do, itni ahmiyat mat dena kisiko. Unki itni aukaat nahi hai itni ahmiyat ki. Unke (jawaan) prati agar kisike dil mein aadar nahi hai toh uska aadar hum nahi karenge. Pakistani kalaakaaro ko Salman ne kaha visa diya hai government ne, Salman ne kaha woh terrorist nahi hai, dono baatein sahi hai. Lekin maine yahi kaha hai ki jab jung ho rahi hai do deshon mein, tab humein alag hona chahiye. Jab jung nahi hogi, tab political decision hoga.

This loosely translates to:

According to me, everything else comes later, my country comes first. Actors are nothing in front of the country, they are like bugs. We have no value. I was in the army for a while and I know that the biggest heroes are our soldiers. We (actors) are very ordinary, fake people so don’t give too much importance to what we say. You understood who I’m referring to? Actors keep talking about issues, don’t listen to them too much. They don’t deserve that much importance. If someone does not respect our soldiers, I won’t respect them. Salman said that the government has given Pakistani artists visa and that they are not terrorists. He is correct, but what I am trying to say is that when there is an ongoing war between two countries, we should part ways. When there won’t be war, we will adhere by the political decision.

What are your thoughts on his comment?