Sunny Deol-starrer Batwara 1947 emerged a box office disaster.
Shabana Azmi, who starred in it, has cited a reason behind its failure.
She said audiences were unable to accept Sunny Deol playing a Muslim.
Shabana Azmi Says Batwara 1947 Flopped Because Audiences Rejected Sunny Deol's Muslim Role
The veteran actor also insisted Hindi cinema nowadays has grown wary of touching India-Pakistan stories.
Summary
Shabana Azmi has said the weak box-office run of Batwara 1947 might have to do with audiences being unable to accept Sunny Deol as a Muslim character. The film, released on August 14, has grossed Rs 53.96 crore so far, while Emraan Hashmi’s Awarapan 2, which opened on the same day, has crossed the Rs 200 crore mark. Azmi incidentally stars in both.
Azmi, who plays a pivotal role in the film, spoke to Zoom in a sprawling interview, "Firstly, I am very surprised at the total box office disaster that Batwara 1947 has been because I am surrounded by people who come and tell me they have loved the film. They tell me that they loved the message. A lot of them feel that it is very important to speak about humanity in today’s environment. On the other hand, people didn’t go to the theatre and the ones who did, they walked out with confused reactions.”
Shabana Azmi On Batwara 1947's Box Office Failure
She pointed out, "The thing is that you cannot accept Sunny Deol as a Muslim. In Coolie and in many other films, Amitabh Bachchan very comfortably played Muslim characters. In Deewaar, he put 786 and that was accepted. So how do we understand this? Are they creating an environment where such decisions are being taken on purpose? I am not able to understand. I am surprised at how people are reacting to it. Even the ones who have watched the film think Sunny Deol is playing a Pakistani. He is not. It is simply not registering in their heads."
She insisted there's nothing politically incorrect about the film. Rather, the Indo-Pakistan relationship itself has turned too prickly as a subject in contemporary Hindi cinema. There are also peculiar misunderstandings happening now compounded by the communal logic overtaking the country. She underlined, "The problem is that you cannot touch the subject of Hindustan and Pakistan in this setup, which is very disappointing. This is a film which is politically not incorrect in any way. You can’t find fault with it. Sunny has done a very good job. It is very surprising and also contradictory that when I meet people, why are they praising the film so much?"
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Batwara 1947 is directed by Rajkumar Santoshi and produced by Aamir Khan Productions.
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