Mumbai: A day after Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray said the state government would not tolerate the “forceful shifting” of Bollywood elsewhere, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, on an overnight visit to Mumbai for the listing of the Lucknow Municipal Corporation municipal bonds on the Bombay Stock Exchange, said he had not come to Mumbai to snatch away any investments.

“No one can take away what belongs to another. This is not a purse that you can put your hand into, take things and walk away. We are not doing anything to steal other (state’s) investments,” said Yogi Adityanath.

Addressing a press conference at a hotel in Mumbai on Wednesday, Yogi Adityanath said he was keen to create social security in Uttar Pradesh and hence was meeting leaders from various sectors to create a roadmap for the state’s development. “We have created world-class facilities. Those who wish to avail of these facilities will come. We are not in Mumbai to snatch anything. Why is everyone so worried?” he asked. The UP CM said the Noida film city will be located six km away from the upcoming international airport at Jewar and added this will be well connected with Delhi, Agra and Mathura.

Yogi Adityanath said he had met a delegation from the film industry which included Boney Kapoor, Manmohan Shetty, Subhash Ghai, Anand Pandit and others. On Tuesday, he had met actor Akshay Kumar, besides several industry leaders and a delegation of defence manufacturers.

To draw investors, the UP government has hammered out several sectoral policies and development picked up pace over three years, including the pandemic months, and the government has the intent to encourage investments, Yogi said.

The Shiv Sena, however, continued its aggressive stand on what it termed as an attempt to move Bollywood out. Sena leader Sanjay Raut questioned whether Yogi Adityanath would meet film producers from other states as well or if he had a problem only with Mumbai (Bollywood). Raut also asked Yogi Adityanath about the current status of the film city set up in Noida (UP) and claimed that shifting Bollywood to other states was not an easy task.

Raut pointed out that there were film cities in various states, including West Bengal, Punjab, Andhra and Karnataka. “Will Yogi ji also visit all these states and meet film producers and actors? Or does he have a problem only with Mumbai?” he asked. Raut added, “Will he (Yogi) be able to move bungalows of film stars to Uttar Pradesh?”

Raut said, “How many movies have been produced at the Noida film city, what is the status of film shootings? He should come to Mumbai and inform people here. Moving the film city from Mumbai is not a joke. It has a vast history, and many have worked hard to establish it.”

Mumbai: The Bombay HC on Monday asked Sena MP Sanjay Raut to clarify whether or not he had used an expletive against actor Kangana Ranaut in a video interview, reports Swati Deshpande.

“Are you saying that he is not calling her a ‘h*******r’?” the bench repeatedly asked Raut’s counsel, after a short clip, in which Raut allegedly used an expletive against her, was played at the virtual hearing to allege ‘malice’ in the demolition at her bungalow and his counsel tried to say the clip had ‘no mention’ of Ranaut’s name.

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Mumbai: Hearing actor Kangana Ranaut’s petition against “the illegal demolition” at her Bandra bungalow on September 9 by the Shiv Sena-led BMC, Justice S J Kathawalla asked: “Are you saying that he [Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut] has not referred to her when he said that ‘ladki’?”.

Raut’s counsel Pradeep Thorat will submit the MP’s reply to the HC bench of Justices Kathawalla and Riyaz Chagla on Tuesday.

The bench on Monday also asked Ranaut’s counsels, Birendra Saraf and Rizwan Siddiquee, to submit Raut’s entire video interview. At the last hearing, the HC had made Raut and H-West ward officer Bhagyawant Late parties to Ranaut’s petition.

Saraf submitted that ‘the entirety of the case’, the tweets, Raut’s interview, and the haste and abuse of law by BMC for “extraneous reasons” in denial of a fair chance to explain shows “malice in law and in fact”. He also submitted Ranaut’s tweets posted since August 30.

In response, senior counsel for BMC, Aspi Chinoy, pointed out that “malice in fact” has to have “extraordinarily high burden of proof”. Pointing out that there can never be “malice in fact” against a statutory body, Chinoy asked: “When a statutory body demolishes an unlawful work, can it be termed as malice in law?”

Chinoy, with advocate Joel Carlos for BMC, said the demolition of “unlawful ongoing work” with a 24-hour notice was justified in law. “If found that large alterations are carried out and finishing work is going on, the civic body can invoke 354A of the BMC Act,” he said.

When the HC pointed out that Ranaut was not in town when the notice was served, Chinoy said that “if she can tweet from Mohali, she could easily have given answers to her lawyer”.

“The party has shown no candour…has refrained so far, from saying when the work was carried out,” he said, adding that the petition either be dismissed or sent to city civil court as a suit and Ranaut “be called to the witness box to prove when the work was carried out”.

Ranaut had given “veiled” and “vague” statements and in a writ jurisdiction, the court cannot be asked to “draw inferences”, said Chinoy.

But when the HC asked if there was inspection after the September 7 notice, the BMC counsel replied in the negative.

Ranaut’s case was that the Sena-led BMC had targeted her as she was at “loggerheads with the government”. To this, Chinoy said “utterances cannot give you immunity from unlawful activity otherwise it will lead to a perverse situation”.

There was no finding that the work was still on after the September 7 notice, he argued. “Even assuming any work did require prior permission, given a fair chance, she could have applied for regularisation,” Chinoy concluded.

Ranaut’s lawyer Saraf argued that in times of Covid, the HC had directed that all demolition orders be kept in abeyance and the BMC, in another case, had in fact expressed inability to act, citing the order.

The bench observed, “We can give you a number of orders when there was no pandemic and they (civic body) have not [demolished],” said Justice Kathawalla. “In our first order itself we have said that if they [the BMC] acted with such swiftness, the city would be a better place.”

The HC asked Late, who had passed the demolition order, whether he was this swift when other similar notices were issued in Bandra-Khar area, and why he had razed another premises on September 14, when notice had been issued on September 4. Senior counsel Anil Sakhare will file Late’s reply on Tuesday.

THE TIMES OF INDIA (September 14, 2020)

Mumbai: Actor Kangana Ranaut, who is locked in a bitter battle with the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, met governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari on Sunday to complain about the “injustice” done to her. Kangana, who was accompanied by her sister Rangoli, explained her “point of view” and sought “justice” during the 45-minute meeting, said sources.

Talking to reporters after the meeting at Raj Bhavan, Kangana said she is not a politician and had met the governor as a common citizen. “I told him about the injustice meted out to me and what happened was improper. It was indecent behaviour,” she said, adding that the governor heard her like a daughter. Kangana later tweeted: “A short while ago, I met his Excellency the Governor of Maharashtra Shri Bhagat Singh Koshyari ji. I explained my point of view to him and also requested that justice be given to me. It will restore faith of common citizen and particularly daughters in the system.”

The Shiv Sena-ruled BMC had demolished alleged illegal alterations at Kangana’s Bandra bungalow following a spat between the party and her after she likened Mumbai to Pakistanoccupied Kashmir and questioned Mumbai Police’s handling of the Sushant Singh Rajput case.

Refusing to comment on the meeting, Sena leader Sanjay Raut said, “The subject (Kangana) is over for us... We will just hear and note it down, but will not talk on the issue....”

Sena-run civic body's decision to demolish Kangana Ranaut's home office after her vitriolic attack seems so harebrained that even Sharad Pawar, MVA ally and master tactician, is irked
MID-DAY (September 10, 2020)

After the war of words between actor Kangana Ranaut and Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut, the action in the ugly drama following Sushant Singh Rajput's death moved on ground, with the BMC initiating demolition of the actor's office it deemed illegal. Ruling partner Sharad Pawar said the timing of the action will raise more questions than answers.

The civic body started demolishing the alleged illegal constructions done at actress Kangana Ranaut's Pali Hill office on Wednesday morning but was stopped in its tracks by the Bombay High Court by noon which issued a stay order.

Meanwhile, there were 52,154 complaints against illegal structures across the city between January 2016 and July 2019, as per BMC's reply to an RTI application. Till last year, the BMC acted on 12,157 complaints.

On Wednesday, a team from the H West ward broke the wall and gate of the office during the demolition. Ranaut had approached the court challenging the notice and sought a stay. The high court also questioned the BMC on why it entered the property when the owner was not present at home.

An inspection of the office was done on Monday and a stop-work notice was pasted outside it on Tuesday morning. The notice was served under Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act which gives citizens 24 hours to produce relevant permissions.

On Tuesday evening, Ranaut's lawyer, in his reply to the BMC, asked for more time for the actress to furnish relevant information. On Wednesday, the corporation stuck a fresh notice saying it was not satisfied with the response and that the demolition will be carried out at her own risk and cost.

NCP chief and MVA architect Sharad Pawar said on Wednesday, "The timing of the demolition would raise doubts in the current situation (the actor's row with the Shiv Sena). I do not know the nature of the structural illegality of the office space and illegal work isn't a new thing in the city."

Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis said, "This is an act of revenge and cowardice. You cannot use government force to maim a person who speaks against you. This has never happened in the history of Maharashtra and the people here will never accept such an act."

94k Plaints In 43 Months
In its reply to an RTI application by activist Shakil Ahmed Shaikh, the BMC said they have received 94,851 complaints of illegal structures in the past three years.

In the span of 43 months from 2016 to 2019, 42,697 were duplicate complaints. Out of the 52,154 unique complaints, maximum complaints were received from L (Kurla) ward at 4,966. K west (Andheri W, Vileparle W) ward received 3,680 complaints and P North (Malad) ward had 3,690 complaints.

The corporation closed 7,230 complaints without notice and issued notices to 21,873 structures. Out of these, 5,461 structures were demolished and 12,157 complaints were closed till July 2019.

"Shiv Sena is taking action against Ranaut's office just to retaliate. There were so many disasters due to illegal constructions — Kamala Mills fire, Bhanu Farsan Mart, Hotel City Kinara, Sai-Siddhi buildings. But the BMC is not keen on taking action against these illegalities," said Shaikh. He added that the BMC spends at least Rs 20 crore on demolitions annually. And annually, an average of 15,000 structures are served notices, while demolition is carried out against 10 to 20 per cent of them.

14 Booked For Protests
While local police were deployed at the actress's office during the demolition to prevent law and order problems, a DCP rank officer was a part of the team that escorted the actress from the airport to her Khar residence.

"It is our duty to protect every citizen and we are committed to it. After her arrival, there were a lot of people protesting against her so we escorted her from another gate of the airport," a senior IPS officer told mid-day.

Police teams continue to be deployed at the actress's office and residence.

Khar police also registered a case against 14 people for unlawful assembly and violating the lockdown as they protested against BMC's demolition drive outside the office. According to the police, they were allegedly brought by a national TV news reporter to demonstrate in support of Ranaut. The protesters came with placards with the slogans #BharatForKangna #IndiaForKangna #WarriorsForSSR. "We are investigating the role of a journalist who brought them at the spot for his coverage. The TV channel was carrying the news with the same hashtags as seen on the protesters' placards," the officer added.

No Quarantine
Mayor Kishori Pednekar said that BMC's action is for the illegal structure and there is nothing wrong in it.

Also, P Velarasu, additional commissioner, said that the actress was exempted from quarantine as there is an online exemption application stating that she is on a short visit. Since she is staying for less than a week, she is exempted under the short term visitor category.

The actor in her recent tweet compared Mumbai to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir
Makarand Gadgil (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 5, 2020)

The BJP on Friday had to distance itself from Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut’s controversial tweet in which she compared Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK). The leaders of the ruling alliance in the state lashed out at her, with senior NCP leader and state home minister Anil Deshmukh saying that those who feel unsafe in the city have no right to live here. The senior BJP leader and Bandra West MLA Ashish Shelar had to issue a statement criticizing Ranaut after the controversy over her tweets deepened. Shelar in his statement said, “BJP doesn’t agree with Ranaut’s statement, she should not give lessons to Mumbaikars on how to behave.” No one should make comments on Sushant Singh Rajput’s suicide case which will create a law and order situation, he added.

Earlier in the day, Ranaut tweeted that she is returning to Mumbai on September 9, and dared anyone wanting to stop her from entering the city. For the last few days, a war of words has been going on between Ranaut and Sanjay Raut, Shiv Sena’s Rajya Sabha MP and executive editor of party’s mouthpiece Saamana. Ranaut a few days back tweeted that Mumbai is no longer safe and raised questions over the integrity of Mumbai Police. Subsequently, Raut hit back by saying that, there is no need for the actor to come back to Mumbai.

However, Ranaut’s tweet about coming to Mumbai received a sharp response from constituents of the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi. Shiv Sena MLA from Thane Pratap Sarnaik announced that the party’s women wing activists will not allow Ranaut to step out of the airport when she returns on September 9.

Commenting on the Ranaut episode, home minister Deshmukh said, “Ranaut has no right to live in Mumbai if she feels insecure in the city and threatened by Mumbai Police.” He even hinted at taking action against Ranaut for defaming Mumbai Police but didn’t elaborate. “If people who have nothing to do with the city malign it and its police, the state government and the home minister...should take action, or else the morale of the police will take a beating,” Raut told reporters on Friday, alleging a conspiracy behind the campaign against Mumbai Police.

State Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant accused Ranaut of being hand in glove with the BJP to malign the Sena-NCP-Congress government and the Mumbai Police.

Denying rumours that Thackeray sequel has been shelved, Nawazuddin Siddiqui asserts part two of the biopic will go on floors in due time
Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; November 1, 2019)

Even before the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Thackeray hit screens in January, producer Sanjay Raut had announced that the biopic on Balasaheb Thackeray, the late Shiv Sena supremo, would be a two-part affair. The filmmaker had reasoned that it would be a challenge to sum up the life of the leader — who was charismatic and controversial in equal measure — in one film. However, of late, rumours have been rife that the sequel to the Abhijit Panse-directed venture has been shelved.

Broach the subject with Siddiqui, who counts his turn as Thackeray amongst his most defining roles, and he assures that the team is making steady progress on the script of the second instalment. "The initial idea was to make the film in two parts, so, the question of shelving it doesn't arise at all. Also, the first film received a good response. The script is currently being worked on. I had spoken to Sanjay Raut a few months ago and he assured me that the second part will be made," he smiles. However, the actor refuses to put a timeline to the project. "They [the makers] were busy with the elections, and I am tied up with my movies. Playing the character would require me to get into the mould again. So, it will take some time before we set the ball rolling."

Siddiqui, who is known for his proclivity to the gritty cinema, will next be seen in the romantic comedy, Motichoor Chaknachoor, that also features Athiya Shetty. The actor explains that greenlighting light-hearted films are a calculated move to reach out to a wider audience base. "Most of my films are A-rated. So, the family audience cannot watch them, nor can my daughter [Shora]. So, I am actively doing films that she can watch. My next, Bole Chudiyan, directed by my brother, is in a similar space."

Producer Sanjay Raut on kicking off Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer Thackeray sequel mid-year
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; February 13, 2019)

Member of Parliament and Thackeray producer Sanjay Raut had promised at the outset that the Nawazuddin Siddiqui-starrer - a biopic on the late Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray - will be a two-part affair.

Encouraged by the positive response that the Abhijit Panse-directed venture earned, the team has already dived into the pre-production of the sequel. Buzz suggests that Siddiqui, who is currently shooting for Honey Trehan's Raat Akeli, will slip into the role again by mid-year.

"Nawaz Bhai's support has emboldened us to kickstart the second part soon after. He will make time for us when the film goes on floors," begins Raut. "We simultaneously wrote the script [of the second edition]. The first part ends at an interesting point," he adds, referring to Thackeray's trial that investigated his role in the 1992 Mumbai riots. It is heard that the next edition will open with the controversial chapter and go on to trace the years after, up to his death in 2012. "A lot has happened in his personal and professional life then on. It will be a vast story encapsulating his later life."

In the first part, the makers were accused of skimming through the Babri Masjid demolition and the Mumbai riots. But Raut insists that he will "maintain the fearless approach" in the narrative. "Journalism students have reached out to me to use the biopic as material for their work. Young people from UP and Bihar have discussed the film with me. Thackeray was a controversial man with a set of ideologies that are open to criticism. To show him for what he was required gumption. We will maintain our fearless approach in making a movie that does justice to him in the true sense."

Film focusing on late politician’s life around Emergency of 1975 kicks off in March; Shoojit Sircar likely to direct
Himesh Mankad (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 31, 2019)

A day after trade unionist and former Cabinet minister George Fernandes passed away at the age of 88 at a Delhi hospital following prolonged illness, Mirror has learnt that politician-turned-filmmaker Sanjay Raut is set to make a biopic on him. The script and screenplay of the film have been locked and Raut intends to take it on the floors in March this year.

“George Fernandes is an inspiration in the true sense of the word. He was known for the many roles he took on during his lifetime—a trade unionist, a socialist leader, an anti-Emergency hero, a former Union minister and a Rajya Sabha member. The idea is to bring his life to the celluloid and reach out to a wide range of audience,” said a source close to the development. The film will primarily focus on Fernandes’ life from the mid-1950s in Mumbai to Emergency in 1975. According to the source, it will also chronicle his friendship with Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray.

Raut is in talks with actors for the lead in the film, which will be a Hindi-Marathi bilingual. Buzz is, Shoojit Sircar will direct the project. When Mirror contacted Raut, he said, “I seek guidance from Shoojit as he is a close friend and I’d love to have a talented director like him on board. But we’re yet to finalise names.”

Hailed as the original angry young man of Indian politics, Fernandes was 16 when he ran away from his Mangalore home and, after a brief stint in Bangalore, landed in Mumbai. He was working as a proof reader at an English newspaper when he met trade union leader P D’Mello, after which he quit his job to become a full-time trade unionist.

He is credited with helping make Marathi the official language of communication in the BMC during his reign as a corporator in the 1960s. After his win over Congress leader SK Patil in the 1967 Lok Sabha elections, the next career-defining moment in Fernandes’ life came with the rail strike of 1974 which went on for an unprecedented 21 days, which would become one of the reasons for the imposition of Emergency in 1975.

Fernandes became a Union minister of industries in the Janata Party government after his 1977 win from behind the bars. He would go on to serve as the railway minister in the VP Singh government and defence minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, overseeing the Kargil war in 1999.