Now it is the turn of Yash Raj films to pay tribute to India’s missile man, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. The chick flick assembly line factory has announced that it will be renaming its 2013 Bollywood flick, Aurangzeb, starring Arjun Kapoor as Abdulkalam.
A teary eyed Aditya Chopra said it was the least they could do by way of homage to the late President. “We were wondering how Bollywood can also honour the late President,” the DDLJ director recalled. “Then it struck me that we too had produced this movie called Aurangzeb. Well, there was no rhyme or reason for us to name it Aurangzeb in the first place. But now with the Union government renaming Aurangzeb road, we though why not rename our movie as well after Kalam ji and honour his memory,” the DDLJ director told The UnReal Times. “In fact, we wanted to go the whole hog and rename it as Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen AbdulKalam but the distributors said AbdulKalam sounded sniffier.”
The move has yet again polarized opinion with right wing nationalists hailing it while liberal intellectuals feel disturbed that once again history is being distorted. “The Bollywood flick Aurangzeb is now part of history. It got released, sunk without a trace, and people have moved on. Why rake up this non-issue?” said JD-U leader, Sharad Yadav.
“It’s another matter that it’s a Yash Raj movie with a hare-brained plot starring Arjun Kapoor that could have been named Abracadabra for all we care. But changing its name, just because it happens to be Aurangzeb, to Abdul Kalam! What kind of message are we sending to the minorities?” complained Mihir Sharma.
On the other hand, the BJP has praised Aditya Chopra. Home Minister Rajnath Singh said he never understood Bollywood’s fascination with controversial characters from history. “There was that Aamir Khan starrer Ghajni which reminded people of Mahmud of Ghazni. Why the movie couldn’t has been named, say, Anandapal, the heroic Hindu ruler who resisted Mahmud of Ghazni? Anyway, better late than never that Aditya Chopra has gone in for course correction. I would also urge the Bollywood fraternity to rename 70s era blockbuster Amar Akbar Anthony as Amar Pratap Anthony,” Rajnath Singh said.