New Delhi: Bollywood actor Sunny Deol, officially known as Ajay Singh Dharmendra Deol, may be savouring the success of “Gadar 2” as the lead actor, winning the hearts of theatre-goers and making robust box office collections of over Rs 300 crore since the film’s release last week. But his performance as the Lok Sabha MP from Gurdaspur in Punjab has not been as noteworthy.

The BJP MP, who was elected in 2019 from the constituency which was earlier represented by another Bollywood biggie Vinod Khanna, has been lacklustre in using the MPLAD fund with most of it remaining unspent.

The actor has mostly stayed away from Parliament proceedings and has asked just one question in the 12 sessions of the 17th Lok Sabha.

In fact, Deol didn’t even turn during the no-confidence motion in the recent monsoon session, opting instead to promote “Gadar 2”. The actor, known for his dialogues like “Dhai kilo Ka Haath” and “Tarikh Pe Tarikh”, skipped the entire monsoon session despite the party issuing a whip asking all its MPs to be present during the three-day debate on the no-confidence motion and also on the day of voting on crucial Delhi services bill.

According to the PRS legislative research data, Deol has not taken part in a single debate in Lok Sabha so far against the national average of 42.7 and state (Punjab) average of 35.1.

In terms of questions asked in the House proceedings, the Gurdaspur MP has asked just one question while the national average is 191 and state average is 100. The sole question asked by him was on illegal sand mining in rivers on March 3, 2020.

Even in terms of private members’ bill for which Fridays are reserved, Deol hasn’t bothered to ask even one question whereas the national average is 1.5 and state average 1.3.

His attendance so far has been 0% in monsoon session, 8 % in Budget session in 2023; 11% in Budget session, 0% in monsoon session and 0% in winter session in 2022; 0% in winter session, 18% in monsoon session and 38% in Budget session in 2021; 30% in monsoon session, 13% in Budget session in 2020; and 24% in Budget session and 65% in winter session in 2019.

Deol had won the seat defeating the then Congress nominee Sunil Jakhar, now BJP’s Punjab president.

The actor was fielded by BJP from the constituency after the demise of Vinod Khanna. In the bypoll after Khanna’s death, Jakhar had registered an emphatic win by more than 1.93 lakh votes against BJP’s Swarn Salaria. BJP strategists fielded Deol in 2019

Sunny Deol is no different from his father Dharmendra who won from Bikaner Lok Sabha seat in 2004, but had been indifferent to his constituency and gave a miss to Parliament sessions.

New Delhi: The script of Onir’s next feature film, inspired by the real-life story of a gay Major, was rejected because it showed the Army deployed in Kashmir in “poor light” and raised “security issues”, the defence ministry said on Friday.

“The reason for refusal for granting a no-objection certificate (NOC) for a movie based on the life of an Army officer (retd) is the portrayal of a romantic relationship between a soldier serving in Kashmir and a local boy, which casts the Army in poor light and raises security issues,” junior defence minister Ajay Bhatt said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

Only one out of the 18 proposals for films, documentaries and TV series received by the Army from filmmakers and producers in the last one year has been rejected, he added. Onir sought the defence establishment’s permission to make the film, which was inspired by the story of a gay Major who quit because it was no longer tenable for him to remain a homosexual and be in the Army, as a sequel to his National Award-winning film titled ‘I Am’, as was reported by TOI last month.

Responding to BJP member Varun Gandhi’s question in Lok Sabha, Bhatt said the approval process was not arbitrary or discriminatory, nor did it violate Article 14 of the Constitution. The rationale behind issuing NOC to filmmakers and producers for movies based on defence-related themes is to ensure that the armed forces are not depicted in a manner which brings disrepute to them, the government or the country, Bhatt said.