There was a violent protest in the Jadavpur University campus when Vivek Agnihotri’s film Buddha In A Traffic Jam, starring Anupam Kher was screened on the campus on Friday. The Triguna Sen auditorium inside the campus was booked for the screening, but later cancelled by the Jadavpur University alumni association.
“I regret to inform you that due to model code of conduct prevailing due to state election we are unable to allow you to screen the movie ‘Buddha in a traffic jam’. Please bear with us,” alumni association’s Sipra Patra said in a letter to the organisers.
However, that did not stop Agnihotri from screening his film.
(The picture in the above tweet says, ” Bharat Mata Ki Jai, we are with you #IamBuddha)
“The students want to see the film and they want it to be screened. So they have said they will arrange for its screening in the open air. I’ll fight for it because this is a matter of my freedom of speech and expression,” the filmmaker told PTI.
He also questioned why people were afraid of screening the film which he described as “the boldest political film ever made in India”. The film, which stars Anupam Kher and Arunoday Singh in major roles, has so far been screened in a number of educational institutes throughout the country.
While Indian media reported on the protest at Jadavpur University, the director took to Twitter to present his own version of the incident:
When suddenly the screening got cancelled he tweeted:
He pleaded for support:
When a violent protest began despite the peaceful screening:
According to the director this is why the violence began:
And early on Saturday morning he assured his followers that nothing would break him:
And claimed the morning papers were biased against him: