Controversy is going on in Maharashtra over a Marathi film. Its name is ‘Har-Har Mahadev’ and its story is related to Baji Prabhu Deshpande, the general of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Recently, the show of the film had to be stopped midway at the Cinépolis Theater in Viviana Mall, Thane. It was forcibly stopped by an NCP MLA and former minister Jitendra Awhad and the mob accompanying him. These people said that history has been tampered with in this film and we will not allow this to happen. Eventually the theater managers had to call off the show. After winning the work, the NCP workers left from there. But only a few minutes had passed that the workers of MNS i.e. Maharashtra Navnirman Sena, which was led by Thane Palghar District President Avinash Jadhav of the party, came there. He ordered the manager of the shitter to resume the show of the film. Jadhav was heard saying angrily that if someone has guts, then stop the show and show it.
Imagine what must have happened to the audience who came to watch the film when these political people were creating ruckus on the theater with their party force. What horror would they have gone through? But for our politicians, the concern of ordinary and apolitical people in front of their targeted initiatives is perhaps the last expression. It is said that when some spectators asked for their ticket money back at this theater, they were also beaten up. Many people claimed that the workers of both the parties also clashed with each other. A complaint was also registered with the police against Jitendra Awhad and his workers and they have also been arrested. Two days before his arrest, the same Jitendra Awhad along with his party MP Supriya Sule had also participated in Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ in Nanded.
The makers of this film say that we have made this film with great devotion towards Chhatrapati Shivaji and have taken full care of all the historical facts. According to him, whoever will see this film, they will be able to understand Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in the right way. Even after this clarification of the producers, a section is continuously opposing the film. Even the Maharashtra Police had to make security arrangements at several theaters in the state. Meanwhile, the NCP has warned the film industry that tampering with history in the name of freedom of expression and cinematic will not be tolerated. The party says that if any film does this in future also, it will also be opposed. Sambhaji Raje, a former MP of the party and a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji, is at the fore in this campaign.
By the way, the opposition is not only against ‘Har Har Mahadev’. Sambhaji Raje’s film titled ‘Vedat Marathe Veer Daudle Saat’ is also on the target. He said that tampering of facts are being heard in this film too and we will not allow any such film to be released. ‘Vedat Marathe Veer Daudle Saat’ is the same film in which Akshay Kumar is going to become Chhatrapati Shivaji. Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and MNS chief Raj Thackeray were also present at the announcement of the film, which is going to be directed by Sanjay Manjrekar. The political connection of this film can be understood from this. Apart from Hindi and Marathi, ‘Vedat Marathe Veer Daudle Saat’ will be made in many languages of the South. Sanjay Manjrekar said on the occasion that it was his heartfelt desire to work with Akshay Kumar and no one could have been better than him for this role of a Hindu king.
Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala have long had a very close relationship between politics and the film industries there. It is the same in Bengal and also in Maharashtra. But in Maharashtra it is more in Marathi films, not so much in Bollywood i.e. Hindi films. Many people associated with Marathi films have been active in the politics of Maharashtra, while the politicians there are always ready to interfere in the films.
So Chief Minister Eknath Shinde was present at the announcement of a film whose protests have started even before it was made and the NCP involved in Maha Vikas Aghadi is leading the protest. The silence of Uddhav Thackeray’s party on this issue seems to support the NCP. An interesting fact in this politics of films is that the political career of the incumbent Chief Minister Eknath Shinde rose sharply after a Marathi film this year. Titled ‘Dharamveer Mukkam Post Thane’, the film was a biopic of late Shiv Sena leader Anand Dighe from Thane. It was Anand Dighe who had brought Eknath Shinde into politics and after his death, Shinde is the dominant force in his field. The film was released on May 13 this year. Many knowledgeable people claim that the then Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray was also called in the premiere of this film before the release, but he got up and left in the middle of the film.
Not long has elapsed since Eknath Shinde’s rebellion in the Shiv Sena, the breakup of the party and Shinde’s joining the BJP as the Chief Minister. Shinde took over as the chief minister on June 30, but ‘Dharamveer Mukkam Post Thane’ had indicated his rebellion against the party leadership and becoming the chief minister almost a month and a half before that. In this, through the story of Anand Dighe, it was shown how he got the leader who was not given his due. After all, how did Uddhav keep watching such a film?
Eknath Shinde was closely associated with the making of this film. Kshitij Date, who played the lead role in it, had worked hard so that he could get into the personality of Anand Dighe. Recently, the producer of this film Mangesh Desai has expressed his desire to make a sequel. Apart from the many unknown aspects of Dighe’s social service and his political life, he wants to properly narrate the accident in the sequel which led to Dighe’s death and created a riot-like situation in the entire region. The sequel is expected to be released in 2024. That is, before the next general election. Surely Shinde would have expected this to help him in his politics of that time.
Eknath Shinde’s close friends claim that they wanted to make Balasaheb Thackeray’s biopic before Anand Dighe. But this could not happen. On the contrary, Sanjay Raut and his family had a stake in the Balasaheb biopic along with Reliance’s Viacom18. The same Sanjay Raut who is a Rajya Sabha member and who has recently come out of jail and the ED is opposing the bail granted to him. Nawazuddin Siddiqui played the role of Balasaheb in his film ‘Thackeray’ and was accompanied by Amrita Rao. It was released in both Hindi and Marathi, but made in thirty crores the film could barely collect five crores at the box office. That is, it was badly beaten.
Shinde considers it nothing more than a documentary. So it is quite possible that they may try to make a separate film on Bal Thackeray sometime. By the way, the truth is that Praveen Tarde, who played the role of a former Maharashtra minister Dattaji Salvi in Sanjay Raut’s 2019 film, wrote and wrote ‘Dharmaveer Mukkam Post Thane’ with the help of Eknath Shinde. directed. ‘Dharamveer Mukkam Post Thane’ earned around 14 crores and a total of around 30 crores in the first week, while it cost around 10 crores to make.
Anand Dighe, whose biopic was in this biopic, was known as Dharamveer in his locality i.e. Thane and his image was that of a Bahubali leader. After Dighe’s death in a car accident in 2001, Shinde succeeded him. Anand Dighe suffered injuries in the accident. But the hospital where he was admitted attributed his death to a heart attack. Due to this, his supporters believed that there must have been negligence in the treatment. In anger, these people set fire to Sunita Devi Singhania Hospital. Apart from this, there was a lot of disturbance in that area. Today in the same Thane NCP is opposing a film and the party of Anand Dighe’s disciple Eknath Shinde is not speaking. Instead of this, MNS, which is raising the wings of friendship with Shinde, has come to the rescue of ‘Har Har Mahadev’.
