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With the mounting controversy surrounding Diljit Dosanjh and Pakistani actress Hania Aamir’s Sardaar Ji 3, the industry at large has made up its mind. It’s a boycott for the Punjabi star over the association with an artist from the neighborhood for a movie that was made before the Pahalgam massacre and Operation Sindoor that followed a total ban on anything Pakistani.
While the movie is set to release in Pakistan, Sardaar Ji 3 is effectively blocked in India. Given the sensitivity of the issues, there are but few voices in support of Diljit in the industry, the latest being the ever-rational Jadoo Javed Akhtar.
In his recent interview with the NDTV, the veteran Indian screenwriter and lyricist quipped
Ab toh kya karein bechara? Aage kya hoga use kya pata tha? Aur paisa toh usne lagaya. Pakistan ka paisa toh dubega nahi. Paisa toh humare Hindustani aadmi ka dubega. Toh kya fayda?
(Now what would that poor fella do? How would he know about the future events? He has invested. It’s Indian individuals’s money that will be lost, not Pakistan’s. Then what’s the advantage?)
He further argued,
Law jo hai retrospective mein nahi hoti hai. Ki maine aaj law banaya aur aaj se dus pehle ki cheez pe apply kia. Voh nahi ho paega. Vo practical nahi hai. Aur us garib ko malum hota ki aisa hone wala hai toh vo pagal thode tha ki le leta actress ko.
(Law cannot be made retrospective and applied for something that was not unlawful back in time. It is not practical. How would this poor fella know that something like this would have happened. He ain’t a fool to have casted an actress.)
Akhtar added
Mera khayal hai sarkar ko censor board ko ye baat ko sympathy se dekhna chahiye aur kehna chahiye bhai tum ainda mat karna, tumne pehle bana li thi, chalo release kar lo lekin it should not happen again.
(I believe the government and the censor board needs to show some sympathy with the makers letting them release this one for now with a warning to not let this happen again.)
