Shah Rukh Khan has spoken out in support of Sanjay Leela Bhansali who is being targeted by a Jaipur-based Rajput group over his film Padmavati. At a recent event for Raees, SRK said:
“I will be very honest. No filmmaker in the world tries to make a film to hurt anybody’s sentiments. In Billu’s case, I never thought there was anything wrong in the title. When Billu released, 45 heads of the barber community came to me and they really believed that the use of the word ‘barber’ with the film was wrong. I didn’t think there was any problem though. I did not change because I got pressurized but I didn’t want to hurt their sentiments as they genuinely didn’t like it. I told my office people we are not doing it. Let’s change the name and keep only Billu,” said Khan.
SRK also said that using violence to get your point across was not the right way to do things.
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He said, “If anyone has an issue with any film, then I feel there are more peaceful ways of expressing feelings. I am sure 99.99 per cent of filmmakers will relent if you will tell them peacefully about some scenes. We all are creative people and are very open to discussion and change.”
SRK was also questioned about why he hadn’t been more vocal in supporting the director on his social media account. Khan replied that he wanted to find proactive, not reactive solutions.
He said, “Social media, making comments.. I think there’s already too much noise around. Why add to the noise? We are now finding very quick ways of describing things and reacting. Sometimes, keeping quiet is also a freedom of expression. We should be proactive and less reactive.”