MNS chief Raj Thackeray on Saturday blasted Bollywood star Salman Khan for opposing the ban on Pakistani artists in India, saying soldiers guarding our borders face real bullets unlike film actors.
“Our soldiers don’t have any personal animosity with Pakistan soldiers. The bullets our soldiers face are not filmy. Salman gets up after being hit by a bullet,” Raj said reacting to Salman’s remarks, adding that “I have seen his (Salman’s) tubelight blinker many a times.”
“I am also an artist and artists don’t fall from the sky. Pakistani artists have refused to condemn Uri attacks. Why should our artists speak up for them,” Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief told reporters.
The MNS president wondered what would happen if Indian soldiers keep aside their arms wanting to hear a Ghulam Ali concert.
“What will happen then. Are soldiers our servants? …they are protecting us,” he said.
According to a Business Standard report, Thackeray said Salman should go to Pakistan to shoot his films if likes Pakistani artistes. He said Pakistani artistes may not be terrorists but they may be informants, the report adds.
Refusing to buy the argument that there is no justification to ban Pakistani artists since they are not terrorists, Raj said, “How does that concern me if the people are good. I am seeing only terrorists who come to kill our people.”
He said film industry knows only the business of their films. “But the (MS) Dhoni biopic has been banned in Pakistan. Is there dearth of talent in India that we should take artists from the neighbouring country,” he asked.
Interestingly, Raj is on good terms with Salman and is a regular visitor to the actors home during the Ganpati festival.
Salman had yesterday said that artistes from Pakistan should not be treated like terrorists and art and terrorism should not be mixed.
The Indian Motion Picture Producers Association has passed a resolution to ban Pakistani actors from the industry in the wake of the Uri attack, which left 19 soldiers dead.
The resolution came after Indian Army announced that seven terror launch pads were targeted across the LoC by special forces during a surgical strike.
“Pakistani artistes are just artistes and not terrorists. Terrorism and art are two different subjects,” Salman had said, when asked about his take on banning the actors from Pakistan.
(With inputs from PTI)