Sanjay Dutt and Arjun Kapoor starrer Panipat is an upcoming Bollywood movie about a historical war. An Ashutosh Gowarikar directorial, the film is making headlines for all the wrong reasons because it is based on the third battle of Panipat and there are perceptions that the movie has insulted Ahmed Shah Abdali (portrayed by Sanjay Dutt), prompting sharp reactions from many Afghan citizens.
The film features Arjun as Sadashiv Rao Bhau and Dutt as Ahmad Shah Abdali and it is scheduled to release on December 6. The date is also historically significant as Babri Masjid was demolished on the same day in 1992.
As soon as the trailer was released, many called out the filmmaker for distorting history. Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry also raised his concern and questioned the filmmaker’s intention.
One Twitter user pointed out that Bollywood is continuously depicting Muslim rulers/invaders as barbaric savages and Fawad agreed.
When idiots try to rewrite history under RSS influence this is minimum one should expect, agay agay deikheiye hota hai kiya….. https://t.co/IecnORvomx
— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) November 11, 2019
Recently, Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister Idrees Zaman raised with issue in front of Indian envoy to Kabul, Vinay Kumar.
According to Economic Times, the Afghan Embassy to India in a letter to the MEA expressed concerns over the contents of the movie. “…any insensitive/distorted depiction of his (Abdali’s) character might provoke emotions of Afghans which could be unfairly exploited by others to adversely affect the trust and harmony that exists so well among the people of two countries,” it said.
Former Afghanistan ambassador to India, Shaida Abdali also took to Twitter to express his worries over the film’s content.
Dear @duttsanjay Ji: Historically, the Indian cinema has been extremely instrumental in strengthening the Indo-Afghan ties – I very much hope that the film “Panipat†has kept that fact in mind while dealing with this important episode of our shared history! https://t.co/8HKLei2ce1
— Dr Shaida Abdali (@ShaidaAbdali) November 4, 2019
