'Forced Patriotism': Shobhaa De, Vidya Balan On National Anthem At Theatres

New Delhi: Recently at the Penguin Fever 2017, actor Vidya Balan launched noted author and columnist Shobhaa De's book - 'Seventy And To Hell With It'. Speaking to NDTV at the book launch, they touched upon patriotism, casting couch in Bollywood and why they think actors shy away from speaking out about it.

Asked whether the National Anthem should be played before movies, actor Vidya Balan said, "I don't see the point, you can't force patriotism. When I hear the national anthem I stand up... we don't need to be told, this actually is very stifling." Agreeing with the actor, Shobhaa De said, "I believe we demean the National Anthem by force-feeding it. Packaging it as enforced patriotism is demeaning the status of the National Anthem in a movie theatre where I have seen a lot of disrespect being shown because people just think of it as a nuisance and they don't want to be prosecuted but they'll continue to eat their popcorn and continue to chat they'll show utter disrespect and its counterproductive to how sacrosanct the national anthem is."

In a vibrant democracy, asked why do actors shy away from political statements, Shobhaa De said, "Some of the more powerful voices in Bollywood who can definitely make a difference, when they are making political statements of any kind its generally with an agenda or with strings attached. They are either looking for a Rajya Sabha spot, they are angling for some kind of national recognition or a position on some body or the other and all of that becomes too obvious, too apparent. They have a lot at stake as they keep repeating. So if there is someone who is speaking up and has a Rs 300 crore riding on his or her back they are afraid to jeopardise any of it."

Vidya Balan said, "It's not about Bollywood, not just actors. I think anyone is scared to make a political comment today because of the repercussions that you could face. As an actor, I will say this: firstly I have no political affiliations, secondly even if I did I wouldn't want anyone to know them because when people go into the theatre I don't want anything to take away from the magic of what they are seeing on screen."

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Sharing her experience of meeting PM Modi for the first time Shobhaa De said, "When the industrialist asked the PM, 'aap inhe jaante hain?', PM said, 'Inhe kaun nahi jaanta, saalo se inki gaaliyan sunta aa raha hoon'. I told him PM Modi 'I have never abused you, if you say criticism, yes and perhaps I'll continue to do it'. After our exchange I asked the PM, 'Isi baat par ek selfie ho jaaye', I am terrible at selfies, after a couple of attempts I realised it was not working out, so I told him in Gujarati, I have flopped'. He gathered everybody in the room and said 'Shobhaa De pehli baar zindagi mein flop ho gayi hain'.

Sharing her take on the Harvey Weinstein controversy and how casting couch is a reality in Bollywood, Shobhaa De said, "In India and Bollywood there have been creepy crawly Weinsteins for the longest time. Why should the onus of dealing with other person's intentions be on us?"

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Narrating her experience, actor Vidya Balan said, "I have been in films for 12 years and not once have I been propositioned by anyone. I made sure people knew that if I got that job I'd do a great job of it but I was not desperate for it."