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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Bollywood’s Ajay Devgn to produce movie on India-China Ladakh clash

The Bollywood movie on India-China clash in Ladakh will narrate the "story of the sacrifice of 20 Indian army men who fought the Chinese army", read the statement circulating in Indian media. Will it be another attempt to glorify war on mere cliches similar to the movie Uri: The Surgical Strike.

Bollywood actor and producer Ajay Devgn will produce a movie on the recent India-China armed clash on June 15th in the Galwan Valley, Ladakh that claimed the lives of 20 Indian troops.

The Bollywood movie on India-China clash in Ladakh will narrate the “story of the sacrifice of 20 Indian army men who fought the Chinese army”, read the statement circulating in Indian media.

Ajay Devgn has not announced the title of the movie. But the announcement has plunged Indian social media users into haywire. Moreover, it is unclear if Ajay Devgn will don an army uniform and appear in the lead role in the movie.

The Chinese and Indian troops had a deadly confrontation at the Ladakh border. The Indian army said 20 of its soldiers were killed in a “violent face-off” along the Himalayan frontier which resulted in “casualties on both sides”. The incident saw social media users on both sides baying for blood, as tensions between the two nuclear-armed states reach fever pitch amid the pandemic.

The confrontation followed weeks of rising tensions and the deployment of thousands of extra troops from both sides. But an Indian army officer based in the region said that there had been no shooting and that the officer killed had been a colonel.

China had accused Indian soldiers of crossing the Line of Actual Control, in a bid to drive the Chinese out of the disputed region, which is controlled by China but claimed by India. China called on India not to take unilateral actions or stir up trouble, it was reported.

Rising Jingoism in Bollywood

Meanwhile, Bollywood is racing towards glorifying the aggression of Indian armed forces. The world’s second-biggest film industry-Bollywood is gradually aligning with the agendas of the current government of BJP and PM Narendra Modi. Bollywood celebrities are inclining to celebrate and hail the unprovoked aggression of the Indian army towards rivals.

Earlier, Bollywood produced a movie Uri: The Surgical Strike that featured the fake surgical strike of India in Pakistan. The movie had only one message-war is good because of revenge.

Read more: Ayhodhya Verdict: Bollywood Support for Extremism is Unnerving

The movie featured Yami Gupta and Vicky Kaushal in the lead roles. The film covers the Indian saga of a surgical strike in Pakistan in 2016. While Pakistan asserted no such incident happened, Indian adamantly said they did a surgical strike in Pakistan.  As the details around the incident remained obscure, the Bollywood did its task to produce a movie on it. The director entwined several clichés on Pakistan, Muslims, glorifying war, and extra-judicial torture in the film.

The movie shows the lead actor Kaushal wants to take revenge from Pakistan for the Uri attacks in 2016. The actors in the movie repeatedly called Pakistan a terrorist state.

Art and media are a critical tool in supporting the propagandist movements. Hence, Bollywood is becoming complicit in promoting aggression, jingoism, and intolerance in India. Bollywood celebrities are becoming the mouthpieces of the current government and exuding their allegiance to the ruling dispensation.

Indian film industry and shifting outlook

The Bollywood actors hailing Ayodhya verdict showed the troublesome trend fortifying in the industry. Several Bollywood celebrities received flak on social media for hailing the historic Ayhodhya verdict on the case of razing the Babri Mosque.

Celebrities like Urmila Matondkar, Vivek Oberoi, Huma Qureshi, Kunal Kapoor, Shekhar Gupta, Javed Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar hailed the decision and declared it a triumph. Also, many of the celebrities joined the celebration which swept across India following the decision. Actor-turned-politician Kiron Kher and Anupam Kher, who have been staunchest critics of Pakistan, also hailed Indian SC decision.

Read more: ‘Panipat’: Bollywood’s Attempt To Malign Muslim Ruler Ahmed Shah Abdali

Then another period film ‘Panipat‘ featured the fierce third battle of Panipat between the Afghan ruler Ahmed Shah Abdali his two Muslim Indian allies against the Marathas. The movie featured Sanjay Dutt played Ahmed Shah Abdali while Arjun Kapoor played a Maratha ruler Sadashiv Rao Bhau. Kriti Sanon played Parvati Bai, the wife of Maratha ruler Sadashiv Rao Bhau. The movie Panipat is a mishmash of ‘Padmaavat’, and ‘Baji Rao Mastani’.

Anti-Muslim movies in Bollywood

Both movies echo anti-Muslim sentiments-shows Muslims as tyrants, barbaric, and blood-thirsty. The anti-Muslim sentiments are growing in Bollywood. Films like ‘Baji Rao Mastani’, Padmaavat, Akshay Kumar’s ‘Kesari’ and Kangana Ranaut’s ‘Rani of Jhansi’ offers the patterns. Hence, Bollywood is racing to demean historical triumphs of Muslim rulers, build-up hateful sentiments against enemies, and glorify wars.