Anupam Kher and Akshaye Khanna starrer ‘The Accidental Prime Minister‘ released this week amidst political controversy and mixed reviews from the audience. The film faced turbulence across the nation and in the intellectual capital of India, Kolkata, screening of the movie was stopped in one of the city theatres.
Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee also criticized the release timing, which was just before 2019, Lok Sabha elections. She was present at Barasat, where she talked about the timing of the film’s release, “I don’t belong to the Congress, but this is wrong. They have suddenly released a movie called Accidental Prime Minister before the Lok Sabha polls. What does that mean? They should also make a film titled the disastrous Prime Minister,” she said.
Congress supporters’ anger was clearly visible for the film, especially on the social media. They called the film fake propaganda of BJP to malign the Congress party’s image before the elections. In Kolkata, Congressis started gathering in front of the Hind Cinema since morning carrying flags of Congress and Youth Congress.
They rallied to the Wellington crossing and started disturbance in front of the Hind Cinema before the first show started. They even burned an effigy of Prime Minister Modi and demanded a ban on the screening of the film. They were stopped by the police.
Newly elected president of Youth Congress Shadab Khan said, “There was a small rally and they were opposing the way Congress leaders like Sonia Gandhi and others were being portrayed in the movie. Even the title of the movie takes a derogatory stance about the former prime minister Manmohan Singh.”
“We did not want to stop the screening and none of our members entered the theatre premise. The cinema hall management took the decision to stop the screening of the movie,” said Khan.
Another group of agitators tried to stop screening at South Kolkata’s Indira Cinema Hall. manager of the theatre Biswajit Pa said, “Primarily they demanded that the screening should be stopped and posters have to be removed. Later they demanded that we cannot charge for the tickets. We sought police help and there was no trouble during the screening.”
However, Pradesh Congress leaders separated themselves from the protest. One of them said, “Congress president Rahul Gandhi had earlier made it clear that we have nothing to do with it. We have been victims of propaganda off late, but we leave it to the good wisdom of the viewers who will go to the theatres to watch the movie.”