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Published : 21 Feb 2014, 08:15 PM
“Several of our Bangladeshi brethren have reached out to us with their concerns on the way the story has been portrayed,” said the Bollywood studio on its blog on Wednesday.
It said the movie, “was and is meant to be a fictional work and does not in any way project or disrespect any particular segment of society or persons or a nation.”
The movie released on Feb 14 shows Bangladesh’s birth as the result of a 13-day battle between India and Pakistan beginning on Dec 3, 1971, writes the Wall Street Journal.
The matter caused immediate upheaval on blogs and social media sites with angry Bangladeshis calling for a ban on the action thriller movie.
Yash Raj Films said it regretted causing disrespect to a nation’s birth which it said “is always steeped in the sacrifices made by its freedom fighters and martyrs and this can never be forgotten”.
But ‘Gunday’ is a fiction which portrays the reality of families displaced by the war, it said.
The action crime thriller featuring Ranveer Singh and Arjun Kapoor as two outlaws and heroine Priyanka Chopra as a cabaret dancer is currently topping the Bollywood charts raking in crores with just over a week at the box office.
‘Bikram’ and ‘Bala’ are made orphans by what is mentioned as the “1971 Indo-Pakistani War that resulted in the formation of Bangladesh.”
The refugees from Bangladesh in Gunday then prefer to identify as Indians, who due to their various disparities fall back on crimes such as arm smuggling to become top goons in Kolkata.
Bangladeshi film director Mrityunjay Devrat slammed Gunday for its factual errors. “It is hugely irresponsible and derogatory to use a sensitive subject such as the Bangladesh war for purely commercial purposes."
The maker of Children Of War, based on 1971, told Bollywood Hungama that a lot more people were getting to know about Bangladesh’s war.
“But I am hugely disappointed at the lack of attention that Gunday pays to historic details," he added.
