A day after Dibakar Banerjee, along with seven other filmmakers, returned his National Award, his Khosla Ka Ghosla cast member Anupam Kher lashed out against the director.
“What right does Dibakar Bannerjee have to return the National Award Khosla Ka Ghosla is not just his film. All of us, Vinay Pathak, Ranveer Shorey and I slogged our asses off in the sultry June heat of Delhi to shoot the film. And only I know what I went through to somehow get the film completed and released because Dibakar fell out with the producer. And now Dibakar wants to be hero for the freedom of expression in this country by returning his National Award Dibakar didn’t see his freedom being thwarted when he wasn’t allowed to complete his first film ” Anupam said.
Kher also said that films are a collective endeavour, and therefore, no one individual who works on it has the right to solely claim the subsequent bouquets or brickbats as his/her due. “Unlike a sprinter, a filmmaker doesn’t work in isolation. Any award for cinema is a collective recognition. This is why when I am asked why I don’t return my acting awards, I say I won’t — because they are not just tokens of my hard work but of all those who worked with me on all those award-winning films,” Anupam says.
Kher incidentally was also on the offensive at a debate on freedom of expression, organised at the Mumbai LitFest. “I was at a literary debate organised by Anil Dharkar where Shobha De was talking about the lack of freedom of expression. This is the same lady who began the culture of no-curbs on freedom of expression when she edited India’s first gossip magazine. Since then she has spoken her mind and used and exploited the film industry in her writings. Of course I was booed by her friends for speaking my mind about Ms De. But criticism doesn’t bother me. I will stand by what I believe. And I believe freedom of expression is a much-misused concept in our country.”
Anupam is not daunted by the his critics who claim he is voicing the BJP mindset because his wife is an MP from the party. “Let them say what they like. When people begin losing their validity in an argument, they get personal.”
