Bangladesh wants ‘Gunday’ stopped

Bangladesh has lodged a “strong protest” against an Indian film and requested Indian authorities to take “appropriate actions” to stop its screening with “immediate effect”.

Just released ‘Gunday’ triggered an outcry among the people of Bangladesh, particularly in the social media, as it showed its protagonists ‘Bikram’ and ‘Bala’ had been orphaned by what it presented as the “1971 Indo-Pakistan war that resulted in the formation of Bangladesh”.

Bangladesh won its independence after a nine-month bloody war with Pakistan. India was an ally of Bangladesh.

The foreign ministry’s spokesperson Md Shameem Ahsan said the facts of the film “came to the notice of the ministry as soon as it was released”.

He said they had already taken it up officially and a “strong protest” had been conveyed to the Indian authorities.

He said Bangladesh also expressed its “deep sense of hurt and disappointment” about the clearing of the film by India’s Central Board of Film Certification.

“The ministry has requested the Indian authorities to take appropriate actions to stop the screening of the film in its present form with immediate effect,” he said.

However, the production company Yash Raj Films has apologised for disrespecting and hurting public sentiments.

It said the movie, “was and is meant to be a fictional work and does not in any way project or intend to disrespect any particular segment of society or persons or a nation”.

It also 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.