Amol Palekar “shocked and hurt” after his speech was cut off at NGMA event

On Friday, veteran actor and filmmaker Amol Palekar was talking at the inaugural event of the exhibition at Mumbai’s National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA)  which was called Inside the Empty Box, an event organized in memory of artist Prabhakar Barwe. However, he was stopped mid way through his speech by the curator of the show, the noted artist and ex-chairman of the advisory committee Suhas Bahulikar and NGMA’s present director Anita Rupavataram. The entire episode stirred debate, and even the actor held a press conference over the row.

Palekar was interrupted several times during his speech as he criticised the Ministry of Culture for their decision of reportedly disbanding the advisory committees of the art gallery at their various centres. Talking about the incidence, Palekar told Hindustan Times that he was hurt as no one from the audience at the event spoke for him.

Here you can watch a clip from the event where Palekar is asked mid way to change the topic of his speech.

Just got this video of one of my favourite actors, Amol Palekar, being cut off while ruing the loss of independence in art at @mumbai_ngma simply because he seemed critical of a Ministry of Culture/NGMA decision.

This is what #intolerance in the present times is all about. Sad! pic.twitter.com/u8L30qeiz7

— Annu Tandon (@AnnuTandonUnnao) February 9, 2019

“I feel restless that no one in the audience said ‘let Palekar speak his mind’. I was sad that it took the organisers 24 years to remember an artist such as Prabhakar Barwe and hold his retrospective. I was not allowed to speak against this injustice and was also not allowed to criticise the ministry of culture for scrapping the NGMA advisory committee. I was interrupted and told to restrict my speech to the artist,” said the veteran actor.

At the press conference expressing his dismay at the alleged censorship on his speech, Palekar said, “The Director was present there and she said that I should have spoken to her before speaking this here. I replied whether my script would be censored before I speak? I even told them that I wanted to thank the Ministry of Culture for the magnanimity of culture for showing this exhibition. She said she doesn’t want any backhanded compliment like this and left.”

The actor also said that he was not given any brief by the gallery about what he should speak or else he had the option of not accepting their invitation.

Also Read: Amol Palekar: “People’s right to dissent must be respected”

Pooja Sharma

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