Some people aren’t happy with the “Muslim representation” in Rohit Shetty’s recently released blockbuster, ‘Sooryavanshi’.
The Akshay Kumar starrer box-office hit has faced some online criticism, from a certain sections have accused the film for showing villainous Muslim antagonists.
The film features Jackie Shroff as Omar Hafeez, who plays a Lashkar chief and a terrorist and Gulshan Grover as Kadar Usmani, who also plays a terrorist among others. Their evil agendas are confronted by the film’s three leading heroes – played by Akshay, Ranveer Singh and Ajay Devgn, who play Indian cops.
The ‘Golmaal’ director has now responded to the controversy, stating that he doesn’t pick his characters based on their religious background or castes. He went on to add, that previously he portrayed Hindi villains in his past films as well, but no one batted an eye then – brushing it aside as a plain case of hypocrisy.
Here’s what he was quoted as saying by Quint:
“If I ask you one question – Jaykant Shikre (the antagonist in Singham, essayed by Prakash Raj) was a Hindu, then came in this universe (Rohit Shetty’s cop universe which includes Singham, Singham Returns, and Simmba), a Hindu Godman who was the villain. In Simmba, Durva Yashwant Ranade (played by Sonu Sood) was a Maharashtrian. In these three films, negative forces were Hindu. Why wasn’t that a problem?”
He further added:
“If there is a terrorist who is from Pakistan, what caste will he be? We (creators of Sooryavanshi) are not talking about caste.”
Concluding the whole debacle, Rohit stated – “it is their point of view which they need to change, not us.”
Well said, Rohit Shetty!