Inaamulhaq’s honest opinion on Deepika Padukone’s JNU visit: When humanity is at stake, everyone should take a political stand

In Bollywood, you will find very few actors who fiercely voice their opinions on sensitive as well as socio-political issues. In the past few years, we have seen how actors have been targeted if their views don’t match with the popular opinions.

Actor Inaamulhaq, in an exclusive conversation with Bollywood Bubble, opens up on whether an artiste should share their political views. He also spoke about actors publicising their donations during the Covid-19 lockdown.

Here’s an excerpt from his interview…

Given the kind of times that we are living in, do you think artistes should share their political views?

Inaamulhaq: Earlier I never used to open up about these things. But then I realized that first I am a human, then a citizen of this country and lastly I am an artiste. So when humanity is at stake then everyone will have to raise their voice. People are fighting among themselves in the names of religion and politics. Hindus and Muslims are embroiled in mob lynchings. One doesn’t have to experience these things first hand and then wait to share their opinion on it. Politicians are doing their job and using the ‘Divide and Rule policy’, so now the onus is on masses to understand who is taking advantage of them. One should refrain from becoming a pawn at the hand of these politicians. Also, the public’s memory is very poor; they seem to keep on forgetting what has happened over time. Another point to note is that in our country unemployment has increased so much that people are willing to do anything for a mere sum. This is actually a very long discussion, but yes every artiste should share their political views. Period.

But then, we see Deepika Padukone drawing netizens’ ire for just visiting JNU and it was followed by threats on social media to boycott her film (Chhapaak)

Inaamulhaq: Even if a handful of people threaten to boycott, I don’t think that makes any difference because a film’s success is not based on such people. If that was the case, then they could have made pro-government or propaganda films a massive success. But that didn’t happen. Truth to be told these people who demand bans on films or threaten to boycott films don’t even exist. These are all fake accounts run by IT cells of involved parties. Then a section of media portrays these fake opinions on social media as the voice of the entire nation, which is not true. I myself had visited JNU back then. If we artiste don’t take a stand now then when?

 

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A post shared by INAAMULHAQ (@inaamulhaq_official) on May 30, 2019 at 2:05am PDT

There’s a section of actors who are publicising money they have donated towards nation’s fight against Covid-19 and then there are some who prefer not to divulge any details. What’s your take on this?

Inaamulhaq: Even I belong to the second category. Whatever I am contributing is a personal decision. I don’t want to glamourize that. But there’s also another thing that prominent celebrities may inspire others to do the same. Falane Khan ne itna diya toh falana Kapoor bhi kyun piche rahe? ultimately it benefits the needy one. I don’t think me revealing how much I have donated will inspire anyone. People understand their responsibilities. Everyone is donating as per their capability. In fact more than the celebrities it’s the commoners who are offering free food and raising money for the needy ones. They are not publicizing it as they believe in “Neki kar dariya mein daal”.

 

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A post shared by INAAMULHAQ (@inaamulhaq_official) on Jun 29, 2019 at 7:28am PDT

On a parting note, what are the lessons you have learned from this lockdown?

Inaamulhaq: I have always been environmentally conscious. It’s just that now I will be even more conscious. So I don’t think I will be having any new resolutions per se. Now there are many theories that this is man-made or natural, but I can just say that Corona has shown human beings their place. So we should learn and understand that one cannot and should not mess up with nature. I hope we all take a lesson from this and in the coming times help in conserving nature instead of destroying it. Because ultimately it’s your immunity that is saving you and that comes from living in a pollution-free environment. And even the government should focus more on providing better health facilities rather than concentrating on amassing arms and ammunitions.

Also Read: Inaamulhaq: I want to experiment, but Bollywood doesn’t provide me with good opportunities

Pooja Sharma

Cinephile. Bibliophile. Pluviophile. Selenophile. Autophile. Aesthete. Blood group- Tea positive. Poetry lover. Sucker of rom-coms.

PS: Sharmaji ki Ladki sucks at writing bios.
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