Subhash K Jha (DNA; November 3, 2015)


Lashing out at the filmmakers, Nihalani says, “Do they even know what they are doing? All these so-called champions of Indian cinema who make films first got recognised by the government for making films that portray India and Indians in a very poor light as a foul-mouthed, violent, abusive country. And now when these filmmakers are threatened with becoming bhoole-bisre geet, when their self-declared claim to being the champions of Indian cinema are fading away, they’re once again trying to get renewed recognition by returning the recognition that they got from the government.”

Nihalani finds the hypocrisy of the exercise nauseating. “The National award Dibakar returned for Khosla Ka Ghosla belongs to the producer of the film. The producer has gone on record to state the award is not being returned by her. So, basically Dibakar is protesting with a gesture over which he has no claim. By the way, what about the money that he got along with the award? Why didn’t he return it along with the trophy? Or if he has spent the money, he could’ve at least attached an ‘IOU’ note on the trophy?”

Nihalani has accused the filmmaker of using and misusing the government platform to stay in the news he also accuses them of misguiding the young. “These filmmakers who have not had a single success in recent times…in fact the only success Dibakar had was Khosla Ka Ghosla. All I want to tell these filmmakers is, please don’t try to stay in the news by attacking the very establishment that made you famous in the first place.”