Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s film Thackeray released its first official trailer on Wednesday. In the film directed by Abhijit Panse, the Sacred Games actor is playing the role of Shiv Sena founder Balasaheb Thackeray. The actor has gone through tremendous physical transformation to bring the political leader back to life on the screen. While the audience is raving over Nawaz’s excellent performance in the film, Rang De Basanti actor Siddharth expressed objections over hate speech used in the film.
Siddharth has slammed the trailer for referring South Indians in a derogatory manner. Soon after the trailer was released, the actor took to his Twitter to express his angst over the trailer. He wrote, “Nawazuddin has repeated 'Uthao lungi bajao pungi' (lift the lungi and *'#$ him) in the film #Thackeray. Clearly hate speech against South Indians... In a film glorifying the person who said it! Are you planning to make money out of this propaganda? Stop selling hate! Scary stuff!"
In another tweet, he wrote, “Poetic justice is when a Muslim actor from UP gets to play the part of the revered Marathi bigot in a propaganda film.”
Siddharth also accused Thackeray of selling hate with romance and heroism.
For the unversed, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Thackeray has already courted controversy even before the trailer release. The CBFC has objected to three dialogues in the movie, that are scripted and produced by senior Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut.
One of the dialogues is related to the Babri Masjid demolition while the other two are remarks made at South Indians.
Balasaheb Thackeray was known for his highly provocative and controversial statements. In many of these, he targeted South Indians in the late 1960s. He even accused the South Indians of snatching job opportunities from the Marathi youths.
