Veteran actor Om Puri’s comment on Indian martyrs of Uri attacks has drawn flak for him from all quarters. During a TV debate recently, Om Puri said that no one asked the soldiers to join army. This statement of his did not go well with netziens on micro blogging website Twitter with many saying that it was not expected of him.
The actor was participating in a debate which was discussing the ban on Pakistani artistes in India. It is now a known fact that Bollywood is divided over this call to ban Pakistani artistes.
With India and Pakistan being on hostile terms many political parties have asked for a boycott of artists from across the border. Parties like MNS, Shiv Sena were of the opinion that Bollywood’s association with Pak actors is insulting to the soldiers who fight a battle every day.
This call for ban was not received with a singular thought by Bollywood’s personalities. Salman Khan, Karan Johar, Mahesh Bhatt and others stated that banning actors won’t solve the problem and art should be left unaffected.
Echoing the same thought, Om Puri said that the actors come with proper visa and boycotting them would leave Indian filmmaker in financial loss. He added that if the government asks the Pak actors to leave, then it is different but the ban is otherwise insignificant.
It was during the debate when a MNS spokesperson made snide remarks on Om Puri that the latter said, “
We haven’t forced them to join the army.”
“Prepare 15-20 people as suicide bomber and send them to Pakistan to conduct blasts there,” Om Puri added.
This remark garnered a lot of negative comments on Twitter. Veteran actor Anupam Kher too tweeted that he was saddened by Om Puri’s remarks. Here are a few tweets for you:
