MID-DAY (July 20, 2017)

The Bharatiya Janata Party took a dig at actor Kamal Haasan yesterday, for tweeting about his possible entry into politics. The party questioned why the celebrity, who hasn’t done any “service to the people,” has had a “sudden awakening” to enter the field.

The party’s state unit president, Tamilisai Soundararajan told reporters that actors should reflect upon how much they have contributed to the society before considering a career in politics. “Without doing any service to people and society, why this sudden awakening for Kamal Hassan? (sic),” she asked.

The BJP leader said that unlike superstar Rajinikanth, who has spoken up about various issues concerning people, Haasan hasn’t expressed any social concerns. “Politics is not cinema, where one can become the chief minister in a day,” she said.

Hassan had taken to Twitter on Tuesday to post a series of Tamil lines, which hinted at his possible entry into politics. “It is wrong [to] chase them as fools. The paths which are not searched will not be seen. Come with me friend, one who attempts to avoid fanaticism/superstition is a leader,” one tweet translated to.

Vickey Lalwani (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 26, 2014)

The Bharatiya Janata Party's Mumbai branch entered the world of glamour and greasepaint yesterday to launch a film union. It is headed by Shaina N C, a key party functionary who is well connected in the film world. There were mixed reactions from Bollywood to the union.

Kulmeet Makkar, CEO, Film & TV Producers Guild, insists that it is a step taken to appease the vote bank. But filmmaker Shekhar Kapur sees it as a positive sign for the film industry. "Why shouldn't we have a union backed by the strongest political party in the country which registered a swashbuckling win in the Lok Sabha polls?" he argued.

Another filmmaker, Vipul Shah, said that he will form an opinion after reading the union's agenda document. And even the usually frank Mahesh Bhatt doesn't want to "pre-judge anybody".

However, activist-producer Ashoke Pandit was vocal in his reservations, saying, "Don't we have enough associations for the film fraternity already? BJP MPs Shatrughan Sinha, Hema Malini and Paresh Rawal should make a difference in the Parliament. The party at the centre should concentrate more on problems pertaining to the common man." 
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Bharati Dubey (MID-DAY; July 26, 2014)

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has now launched a film mazdoor union. The union was launched on Friday evening at the BJP Dadar Hall. The union will be headed by BJP leader, Shaina NC, who is also a fashion designer and has been closely associated with the film industry. Sandeep Dighe of the BJP will also play a key role in the union. The union’s cine wing will be called BJP Kaamgaar Morcha’s BJP Chitrapat Union.

On her part, Shaina NC, who has organised several meetings between members of the film and television industry and Information & Broadcasting minister, Prakash Javdekar, wants to focus on the well- being of women in the film industry.

She says, “Women working in the film industry need to get perks that they deserve. They are entitled to pregnancy leave and good sanitation facilities and — this will be our area of focus. The goal is to get them their rights. Unlike other unions, we don’t intend to disrupt shoots and vandalise film and TV sets. We intend to become the bridge between the film and TV industry and the workers’ union.’’ The union plans to offer PPF facility, life insurance and Mediclaim to all its members.

Shaina says, “The membership fees start at Rs 1,000 per year depending on the department of filmmaking.” Some of the film fraternity members invited for the launch were Subhash Ghai, Manish Goswami, Dalip Tahil, Shashi Ranjan and Kiran Shantaram.

It may be pointed out that several political parties, including the Shiv Sena, Maharashtra Navnirman Sena and NCP, have their own mazdoor unions in the industry. It remains to be seen whether the film and TV industry will lap up what the BJP’s cine cell is putting up on offer.

Song after song is being written for political parties just before the elections. Do the people behind the songs endorse the party’s ideology or is it just another job for them?
Sonali Joshi Pitale (MID-DAY; April 2, 2014)

Switch on the radio and you are bombarded with songs singing paeans of various political parties just before the elections. A case in point is the new anthem Saugandh Mujhe Iss Mitti Ki for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which has been sung by Sukhwinder Singh, penned by Prasoon Joshi and the music composed by Aadesh Shrivastava. The question is, would it be safe to conclude that these people would be supporting the party that they created the song for.

Aadesh has no qualms in admitting that he’s in full support of the party that he made the music for, but Sukhvinder Singh and Prasoon Joshi made it clear that they looked at it as purely professional commitment.

Aadesh says, “Lyrics of the song are amazing and very meaningful. So when I was approached for it, I immediately said yes. In the last 10 years people have seen no change in the situation and as a common man I am looking for some change in power. The layman’s condition in these years has become worse. But I am not going to campaign for the party.” Aadesh admitted that he hasn’t demanded any money from the party for giving music to the song.

Prasoon Joshi, however, told hitlist that he’s not supporting any party and he’s purely looking at it as a professional commitment.

Supporting two parties
Sukhwinder Singh’s case is unique as he had sung Jai Ho last year for the Congress and this year he switched to the BJP anthem. Singh says for him too it is just a work commitment. He further says that the song is not any pro-party but more pro-country. “Prasoon’s song is wonderful and it doesn’t say anything against any political party.”

Asked if he will support the party he has sung the song for, Singh said, “I will campaign for them if they ask me to do so. But when the Congress had last year offered me Jai Ho, I had put down the condition that I will only sing if the lyrics won’t be maligning any other party. So they gave me the song which only spoke about the progress of the party and so I sang it. I have faith and respect for Prasoon so when this time he came up with this, I agreed. I charged my regular fees for the song and I have already received the payment,” says the singer.

Meanwhile an industry insider says, “Normally advertising agencies which design these campaigns and shoot commercials for the parties are paid as per their market rates. They never do it for free. The only exception for this is when they tie up with some NGO , they don’t charge money.” In praise Sunidhi Chauhan, Alka Yagnik and Shaan sang a song for the Congress Party and Kailash Kher has lent voice for a song praising the Aam Aadmi Party.

Kher supports the AAP party and he says that he’s done the song for free. The crooner has donated the song to the ‘ movement’ which Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal started few years ago. “ My band did the song when Arvindji had not formed the party. However, I still support him because I feel that he has brought a huge change amongst the youth.

Whenever I go out and meet youngsters I get to know that they have been motivated by the party’s spirit. This song is my gift to him,” he said.