The ministry of foreign affairs has lodged strong protests with the Indian authorities against the reported derogatory remarks and distortion of historical facts in the recently released Hindi film ‘Gunday’. ‘The matter has already been taken up officially with the Indian authorities and strong protests have been conveyed to the Indian side,’ the foreign ministry said on Sunday.It said the Bangladesh government had also expressed its deep sense of shock and disappointment about the film’s being cleared by the Indian Central Board of Film Certification.
The foreign ministry requested the Indian authorities to take appropriate actions to stop screening of the film in its present form with immediate effect.
Meanwhile, producers of ‘Gunday’ offered an apology to the people of Bangladesh amid protests against the new Bollywood action thriller that is reported to have portrayed Bangladesh’s war for its independence from Pakistan in 1971 wrongly.
The film’s production company Yash Raj Films in a statement in its blog apologised on Wednesday for ‘any disrespect’ the film had caused to Bangladeshis.
The opening narration of Gunday, released on February 14 in India, is set in Kolkata in 1971 and mentions that ‘Bangladesh is born as Pakistan surrendered on December 16 at the end of the Indo-Pak war.’
The film also apparently indicates that Bangladeshis were involved in various crimes such as arms smuggling and two young boys from this land escaping and becoming vicious criminals. There is also insinuation that Bangladeshis prefer identifying themselves as Indians.
It also depicts the bloody creation of Bangladesh as a 13-day war between India and Pakistan beginning on December 3, 1971.
Courtesy of New Age