On Sunday, many Bollywood celebrities skipped meeting with union minister Piyush Goyal in Mumbai to discuss the “myths and realities” about the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act.
CBFC chief Prasoon Joshi, producers Ritesh Sidhwani and Bhushan Kumar, director Abhishek Kapoor and actor Ranvir Shorey were among those who attended the meeting at a suburban hotel amid heavy police security.
BJP vice-president Baijayant Jay Panda was also present.
Ranvir Shorey said, “It was a good meeting. It’s great to see the government reach out to clear the air regarding the CAA.” “We were told that more such meetings are being organized with people from different walks of life,” he said. “I already had no issues with the CAA and I hope more people are not misled about it affecting any Indian citizen.”
From the first one to arrive was filmmaker Rahul Rawail, followed by Anu Malik, Sidhwani, who left within 20 minutes; Joshi, filmmaker Kunal Kohli, actor Shailesh Lodha, singers Kailash Kher, Roop Kumar Rathod, and Shaan. Producer couple Anu and Shashi Ranjan were also present.
As per media reports, producer Mahaveer Jain sent the invite for the meeting to the industry insiders on Friday.
While the meeting continued, a bunch of people staged a demonstration outside the hotel premises against the amended Citizenship Act. They held up placards against the government and Bollywood. “Bollywood we are watching. #MumbaiAgainstCAA,” one of the posters read. Another placard read: “Don’t disappoint your fans. Reject CAA NPR NRC.”
The text of the invite for Sunday’s meeting read: “The agenda of the meeting will be to facilitate a discussion on myths and realities pertaining to the Citizenship Amendment Act.”
The invite was also sent to other bigwigs of the industry, including Javed Akhtar, Farhan Akhtar, Richa Chadha, Kabir Khan, and Karan Johar, but none of them turned up for the meeting.
For the uninitiated, Protests broke out across the country after the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was cleared by Parliament and signed by President Ram Nath Kovind into an Act.
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