A showpiece literary session featuring veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah and co-organised by University of Mumbai’s Urdu Department was cancelled at the last moment, triggering a controversy over cultural exclusion. Confusion surrounds who was behind the cancellation of the February 1 event titled Preet Nagar, a “soulful literary session” tracing the progressive tradition of Urdu literature, which was to be a part of Urdu Jalsa 2026 at the varsity’s Vidyanagri campus in Kalina.

Sources said that university officials and co-organisers Bazm-E-Ahbab Foundation called the event off citing “security concerns”, while Abdullah Imtiyaz, the Head of the university’s Urdu Department, tried to suggest initially that actor himself had opted out. Later, he tried to pin the responsibility for the cancellation on Bazm-E-Ahbab, distancing his department from the controversy.

Responding to Mumbai Mirror over messages, Shah clarified that his opting out of the event was “a lie”. “The announcement that I had refused to attend is a lie. I was informed at the very last moment, late night of the 31st (January) in fact that the event was cancelled. It was something I was really looking forward to,” he wrote, adding that he had been given “no reason” for the cancellation.

He further said that he had received an email from one Ghazal Shaikh, who had been coordinating with him. “The email sent to me by one Ghazal Shaikh who was coordinating stated: ‘Really sorry for the bad news that due to some un circumstances we are not able to held your session in Mumbai University tomorrow i.e. 01 Feb 2026’.”

Shah’s intent to participate can be gauged from the fact that days before the event, he had shared a short video congratulating the Urdu department for organising the event and announced his presence on stage. This video was shared on the social media handles of Bazm-E-Ahbab and Tausif Ahmed Shaikh, the co-founder of the organization. However, Shaikh remained unavailable for comment despite repeated texts and calls from Mirror.

Preet Nagar was touted as a narrative and performance-led session of poetry-reading, which would reference the works and ideals of poets such as Sahir Ludhianvi and Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

The controversy erupted after invitees were informed on the day of the event that Shah would not be attending and the session stood cancelled. When contacted, Imtiyaz, the Urdu HoD, initially said the actor himself had called off his participation and blamed social media rumours.

“That invitation was cancelled by Shri Naseeruddin Shah and not us. There is a rumour and misinformation being spread on social media by a Malegaon-based reporter, who did not get placed here and barely attended the event for 10 minutes,” Imtiyaz told Mumbai Mirror.

However, after being confronted over a phone call by Shah himself on Tuesday, Imtiyaz reached out to Mumbai Mirror again, distancing the university from the controversy and claiming the Urdu Department had nothing to do with the cancellation.

“We did not invite Naseeruddin Shah. It was the co-organizers who were coordinating with him. They might have cancelled the event. We do not know anything about this,” he said. He, however, maintained that he had no contact information of the Bazm-E-Ahbab office-bearers, raising further questions about who exactly was responsible for the invite and its abrupt withdrawal.

Neither Mumbai University nor the Bazm-E-Ahbab Foundation has issued an official clarification so far.