Rishabh Deb (BOMBAY TIMES; February 3, 2020)

Stressing that students and citizens are within their rights under the Constitution to come out and protest, filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj said it was unfair on the part of the government to brand people against them as “urban naxals”. Speaking on the first day of the Deccan Literature Festival in Pune, Bhardwaj said, “It is sad that we are at a point where anyone criticising it is being branded an anti-national.”

Vishal added that as an artiste, he is deeply affected to see what is happening around him today. “The violence, shooting, hatred and fear is affecting everyone. We have to keep protesting against this. In a democracy, protesting is a fundamental right of every citizen and we should not be denied the right to do so. Gandhiji and other freedom fighters also protested against the British and we got our independence. My film Haider would have faced a lot of difficulties were it to release today, but maybe I would have made something else. You see, creativity takes a different form and shape, it cannot be killed, because art is like a stream of water and a boulder cannot stop it from flowing.”

On the ‘award wapsi’ movement, Vishal said, “A lot of my friends have told me to return the awards. I told them that the awards they were asking me to return were not conferred by the current government. Later I received two National Awards under the current government — one for Haider and one for Talwar. If I return those awards, I will be disrespecting the jury that has no relation with politics. So I have never returned any awards and neither would I do so in the future.”