From the late 1980s, India began to open up to the outside world, encouraging economic reform and foreign investment. It is now counted among the world's leading economic and political powers. The country has a burgeoning urban middle class and has made great strides in fields such as information technology. Its large, skilled workforce makes it a popular choice for international companies seeking to outsource work. On the other hand, its majority of the rural population remains illiterate and impoverished.
Similarly, though India today is a flourishing democracy but still political immaturity at some ends is obvious. Actress and lawmaker Jaya Bachan ran into controversy recently after saying that she preferred to speak Hindi rather than Marathi, the widely-spoken language in the home of the Indian film industry, Mumbai.
In a sharp reaction, Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray asked her not to provoke Maharashtrians, saying it was Mumbai that gave identity to the Bachans bestowing fame when they were an "unknown commodity". Describing Amitabh Bachan as a great artiste whose acting talent transcended geographical and lingual barriers, Thackeray said, 'Jaya Bachan has been making controversial statements that have vitiated the atmosphere leading to discord. This has caused mental agony to her husband also.'
Following to which he called upon people in the western state of Maharashtra to boycott actor Amitabh Bachan and his family, accusing them of disloyalty to the region. His nephew, Raj Thackeray, chairman of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena party, claimed India’s foremost film family had “poison in their minds”, citing alleged promotion of Hindi to the detriment of the Marathi language.
Marathi is widely spoken in Maharashtra. And Bal Thackeray, changed the name of Bombay to Mumbai as part of a drive to promote local language and culture.
The Bachan family lives in the city, which is also home to the predominantly Hindi medium Indian film industry. The volley by Raj Thackeray was the latest in a long-running feud between the famous politician and Bachan. Raj Thackeray has previously accused Amitabh Bachan of favoritism towards Uttar Pradesh.
The Bachans, Amitabh, Jaya, son Abhishek and his wife, the former Miss World-turned-actress and model Aishwarya Rai are India’s first family of acting. They also promote a range of consumer goods from fountain pens and face cream to designer suits and concrete.
Amitabh Bachan’s new film, “The Last Lear”, an English language movie about a retired actor whose ambition is to play Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Abhishek’s latest offering, the science fiction “Drona”, is also scheduled for release in the coming weeks.
Posters of 'The Last Lear' and 'Drona' starring Amitabh and Jaya respectively were pulled down by Raj Thackeray's loyalists all over Maharashtra. The protest, held in the middle of Ganeshotsav, Maharashtra's iconic festival, cut a swathe across the Marathi heartland and sent the MNS's stock soaring. Raj Thackeray came down heavily on joint commissioner of police (law and order) K.L. Prasad regarding the sizeable Marathi representation in the Mumbai constabulary.
In this fresh salvo against the Bachan's family, MNS vowed to block release of all films featuring any of its members in Maharashtra till Jaya Bachan tendered an unconditional apology over her alleged anti-Marathi remarks. Besides this, Raj Thackeray also asked Maharashtrians to boycott all products endorsed by the Bachans accusing them of having disloyalty for Marathi people.
Mollywood filmmakers and actors reacted sharply on Raj Thackeray’s comments against actor and MP Jaya Bachan, and considered the reaction to be extremely “childish” and “silly” over a “light-hearted joke”. They considered it as an attempt to divide the entire industry and create borders within the nation. Since Hindi is the national language and everyone is free to speak whatever language one is comfortable with.
This is not the first time Thackeray has pointed a finger at the Bachans. He had earlier criticized Amitabh Bachan for being Uttar Pradesh-centric during his campaign against north-Indians in Maharashtra. He also questioned Bachan's move to construct a girls school in Uttar Pradesh named after his daughter-in-law and film star Aishwarya Rai Bachan.
Raj Thackeray is the leader of the MNS party who broke away from his Uncle Bal Thackeray's party, the Shiv Sena. Basically, both parties consider themselves the guardians of Marathi identity and culture. But Raj is a relative newbie. His party has no original agenda to distinguish itself, so he's into the same game with his uncle, to get political mileage. So he latches onto whatever triviality he can to kick up a storm and be seen as the protector of 'Marathi people'. People like the Bachans are easy targets, especially given that AB is somewhat involved with UP politics. Sometime back, he raked up an ancient law about shop signboards having to be displayed in Marathi as well as English. Then his activists went on a spree attacking shops that had not followed the law. Truth is, it's totally unimportant, even the state government does not feel the need to enforce it. But for Raj, any issue that can be milked to show how Marathi identity is being overwhelmed by 'outside influences' is enough to make him go ballistic.
Raj Thackeray received support from unexpected quarters as the BJP who joined him in criticizing actress Jaya Bachchan for her 'anti-Marathi' remark. Though Congress strictly condemned the reaction of Thackeray and declared his move very disturbing for the whole nation.
In a move that underlines the fear of movie stars of triggering a backlash from their fans, the Bachan clan went into full damage limitation mode. Rather than ignoring the taunts of MNS, the family issued a series of apologies, first with Mrs. Bachan saying that she had meant no offence and then her husband putting himself in the line of fire. At a press conference, Bachan said “Raj is our friend and we respect each other”. Though he faced a volley of questions on the controversy triggered by Jaya's comments, said that his wife had made ‘casual off-the-cuff’ comments with ‘no malice’. He expressed his regret and apologies to people for their sentiments being hurt.
Describing Bachan's apology as a "triumph" of the "solidarity" of the Marathis, Thackeray said, "Bachan has made his position very clear on the issue. We were told that he has expressed his regrets on his blog. But, a blog doesn't have a wide circulation. As Jaya Bachan had made her statement at a public function and in full media glare, we wanted her or Bachan to say sorry in a similar manner. This Bachan did and we accept his apology."
The Bachans are powerful, perhaps one of the most powerful families in not just filmdom but in the country, with many millions riding on the quartet - Amitabh, Jaya, son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya. Thus the pressure on them, at one level, is understandable. But then this is not a one off incident that they had to face at such a critical point.
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