The Shiv Sena on Wednesday criticised Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Adityanath for attempting to reach out to Bollywood, inviting filmmakers to make movies in his state, reported ANI.
Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut asked if the chief minister would also visit film cities in South India, West Bengal and Punjab to invite them to Uttar Pradesh.
“[It is] Not easy to shift Mumbai’s film city to another place,” he told the news agency. “The film industry in South India is also big. There’re film cities in WB [West Bengal] & Punjab too. Will Yogi Ji also visit these places and talk to directors/artists there or is he going to do so only in Mumbai?”
The Shiv Sena leader made the comments in view of Adityanath’s visit to Mumbai to meet Bollywood personalities, including filmmakers Boney Kapoor and Subhash Ghai, to talk about a proposed film city in Uttar Pradesh, reported NDTV. The Uttar Pradesh government had in September announced a plan to build a film city in Noida to attract filmmakers. Adityanath had met artistes such as Kailash Kher and Akshay Kumar on Tuesday.
On the chief minister’s visit, Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant alleged that there was a conspiracy to shift Bollywood out of Mumbai, reported The Week.
“When BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] was in power in Maharashtra, many industries and offices were shifted to Gujarat,” Maharashtra Public Works Department Minister Ashok Chavan tweeted. “Though the government changed in Maharashtra, the BJP is now readying a script to take away a slice of Bollywood in the name of the Uttar Pradesh government.” Chavan said that he won’t let it happen again when the BJP was not in power in the state.
In October, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had said that attempts were being made to “finish off” or shift the Hindi movie industry from Mumbai, adding that it would not be tolerated.
“Bollywood enjoys a following across the globe,” Thackeray had said in a statement. “The film industry generates huge employment. In the last few days, attempts have been made to malign the image of the film industry by certain quarters which is painful.” He had added that Mumbai was not only the financial capital of the country, but also its entertainment capital.
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