For an industry as politically agnostic as Bollywood, any delegation meeting the Prime Minister is bound to become big news. What is surprising is the number of times, we’ve read such a news item in the past few months. After meeting with several panels/delegations, PM Narendra Modi even took out time to reply to those he couldn’t make time to take selfies with. Yes, this happened.
Not losers but Rockstars!
No selfie Jab We Met but there will always be another occasion. 🙂 https://t.co/1Ud7D5jIvd
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 20, 2019
Imtiaz Ali shared a ‘backfie’ (implying the Prime Minister’s back appearing in the picture) along with Kartik Aaryan, Karan Johar and producer Dinesh Vijan. In the post, that was retweeted by actor Kartik Aryan, Ali described the picture as a “losers’ attempt” to capture themselves in the same frame as Prime Minister. Oddly, the official account of Prime Minister Modu retweeted Kartik Aryan’s post and described them as not ‘losers’ but ‘Rockstar(s)’ (a film directed by Imtiaz Ali). It didn’t stop there, as the tweet contained another Imtiaz Ali reference in the way it used ‘Jab We Met’.
Taking place at the inauguration of a museum on Indian cinema in Mumbai, Prime Minister Modi apparently began his address with ‘How’s the josh?’ – a line from a recent Bollywood film, Uri, that showcases a character based on the Prime Minister.
In his tenure of nearly four and a half years, the last few months have seen Prime Minister Modi going out of his way to bond with the Hindi film industry. In October, last year, a ‘panel’ including the likes of Aamir Khan, Raju Hirani and Siddharth Roy Kapur (and no women) visited the PM’s office to discuss Bollywood’s contribution towards ‘nation building’. Barely a month later in December, the same ‘panel’ expanded into a delegation of about 30 members including the likes of Karan Johar, Akshay Kumar and producer Ritesh Sidhwani (once again, no women).
Hon Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi meets film industry delegation: Aamir Khan, Rajkumar Hirani, Aanand L Rai, Ritesh Sidhwani, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Maulik Bhagat and Mahaveer Jain… How entertainment industry can contribute more in nation building was discussed. pic.twitter.com/VKbWvhqnso
— taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) October 25, 2018
Shortly after this second meeting took place, the world came to know what it was about. Actor Aamir Khan and several other members of the film industry took to Twitter to ‘express their thanks’ to the honourable PM and his administration for reducing the GST (Goods & Services Tax) on the entertainment industry.
Only earlier this month, the Prime Minister met with the ‘young brigade’ of the Hindi film industry including Ranveer Singh, Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Ayushmann Khurrana, Bhumi Pednekar, Vicky Kaushal, Rajkummar Rao and Karan Johar. The selfie, mirroring Ellen Degeneres’s *most viral selfie* from her Oscar gig, got some flak where many questioned Ranveer Singh’s ‘lack of spine’ for hugging PM Modi, even though Deepika Padukone got death threats from BJP allies before the release of Padmaavat last year.
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