MUMBAI: Shiv Sena’s protests against actor Shah Rukh Khan and his film “My name Is Khan” turned out to be a flop as theaters and multiplexes in Mumbai and some parts of Maharashtra shrugged off the party’s threats and screened the movie amid tight security.
Movie buffs queued outside cinema houses to buy tickets and all shows were “houseful.”
There were protests outside some multiplexes by Sena workers and police arrested 120 of them. In Chembur suburb, the protesters succeeded in preventing the screening of the movie at a multiplex.
The film was also not screened in Dadar and neighboring Thane district — Sena and MNS strongholds. Sena workers tore up posters and stoned cinema halls to block the premiere of the movie. They also pelted the offices of Red Chillies — a company floated by Khan — with stones.
Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil and the actor’s wife Gauri Khan went to watch the movie in central Mumbai and Bandra Suburb respectively.
Patil said Sena would be made to compensate for the damage caused to multiplexes by the protesters. “We will not allow protesters to take law into their own hands and will deal with the miscreants sternly. If a multiplex owner wants to screen the film, the government will provide security,” Patil added.
Chief Minister Ashok Chavan said multiplex owners should show courage and screen the movie.
Mumbai Police Commissioner D. Shivanandan said, “If some of the exhibitors lack courage, you cannot point fingers at the Mumbai police. If they have courage they should screen the movie and leave the security to us.”
This encouraged the exhibitors to screen the film on Friday.
Even the Bharatiya Janata Party, a key ally of the Sena, did not support it in its campaign against Khan and the film.
Rahul Kulkarni, a senior marketing executive at a multinational company who watched the movie at Regal theater in Mumbai, told Arab News, “Sena tyranny will not be tolerated. The party cannot curb the freedom of the people. The people of Mumbai have shown they don’t care for the party.”
Apart from Mumbai, the film was screened in Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai and other parts of the country.
In neighboring Gujarat, Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal workers stopped the first show of the film in some theaters but later in the afternoon it was screened without any trouble.
The Congress again blamed its alliance partner, the Nationalist Congress Party for the Sena protests. State Congress chief Manikarao Thakre told the media on Friday, the Sena, which was isolated after the successful visit of Rahul Gandhi, got bolder after the NCP chief Sharad Pawar met Sena chief Bal Thackeray.
Another senior Congress leader Narayan Rane sent a letter to the Election Commission of India asking it to derecognize the Sena.
According to Sena sources, the party may withdraw protests in view of Shah Rukh Khan’s statement issued on Friday wherein the actor expressed regrets over what was happening in Mumbai.
