On Sunday, Union Minister Piyush Goyal was at an event which was organised so Bollywood celebrities can meet and interact with the minister regarding the newly enacted Citizenship Amendment Act and the truth and myths surrounding the legislation. Bollywood is essentially a part of the “Liberal” ecosystem and the magnitude of bullying and abuse that stars have faced in the past for meeting PM Modi or even supporting a step the government, has been apparent. However, despite the bullying and abuse, over 70 celebrities chose to attend that meeting.
Several veteran Bollywood personalities attended the meeting. Among those who attended the meeting were veteran producer and writer Shabbir Boxwala who has been in the industry for the past 3 decades and Ritesh Sidhwani who is an Indian film producer and executive. He is the co-founder of Excel Entertainment with Farhan Akhtar. Siidhwani has produced movies like Rock On, Fukrey returns, KGF – Chapter 1, Dil Chahta Hai, Don etc. Director and Producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah too attended the event along with leading singers like Shaan and Kailash Kher.
Some famous names that attended the event included Ranveer Shorey, Kailash Kher, Prasoon Joshi, Prahlad Kakkar, Rahul Rawail and a host of other actors, directors, producers and writers.
While several personalities attended the meeting, the media has been insistent that “A-Listers” gave the meeting a miss, insinuating that they did so because they oppose the Citizenship Amendment Act or that there is disenchantment that is brewing against the Modi government. However, the reality is far from it.
According to our sources, when the invites were sent, Rajkumar Rao said that he was not in the country till the 15th of January and thus, won’t be able to make it. Imtiaz Ali’s message read, “I am very far away in Antarctica. But great that this is happening :)”. In fact, even Javed Jaffri, who was invited for the meeting said that he would not be able to attend since he was in London and would be back only on the 19th.
Dia Mirza, who has been one of the names doing the rounds for not attending the meeting, had messaged the organisers to say, “Thank you so much for your kind invitation. Unfortunately, I am in Hyderabad tomorrow. Will miss this opportunity to be a part of this important conversation. May this prove to be insightful and productive for all”.
While the media has tried to portray that most of these celebrities did not attend because of their opposition to the Modi government, the reason that our sources confirmed was very different.
In fact, another propaganda that was spread by the media was that the event did not bother inviting “dissenting voices” such as Anurag Kashyap. However, this is also a lie. Director Vipul Shah has confirmed that he personally invited Anurag Kashyap and Swara Bhaskar too, however, they chose not to be a part of the conversation.
The bullying and propaganda of the media were such that T-Series Chief Bhushan Kumar went on record to cleverly insinuate that while he was present at the hotel, he did not attend the meeting with Piyush Goyal.
Was it so embarrassing to attend a meeting with a minister to discuss “myths and realities” of CAA that Bhushan Kumar—one of the biggest producers in Bollywood— had to completely deny it in front of the media? This, after a BJP leader thanked him for attending it ? pic.twitter.com/ccRkk7I4E6
— Justin Rao (@JustinJRao) January 6, 2020
However, this is far from the truth. OpIndia has accessed photographs from this meeting that prove Bhushan Kumar was present at the meeting.
As one can see, the circled individual behind actor Ranveer Shorey is Bhushan Kumar.
One has to wonder how much the celebrities fear the Liberal-Fascist bullying that they would have to publicly deny attending a meeting with a Union Minister aimed to understand legislation better just because the Liberals think it is fashionable to oppose it.
