Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt’s first home production, Sadak 2, which also marks the return of her father Mahesh Bhatt as a director after 20 years, has garnered a lot of controversies, even before its release. Reportedly, Vishwa Hindu Parishad is now seeking action against filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt’s directorial venture which is yet to release on the OTT platform Hotstar. VHP leader Vijay Shankar Tiwari has called out the film on Twitter by alleging that it ‘hurts religious sentiments’. He has claimed that the film is portraying Hindus in the bad light and that the centre needs to take action against the makers of the film.
The movie starring Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhatt and Aditya Roy Kapur, revolves around the protagonist’s encounter with a “fake Sadhu”. Basically Alia’s character in the movie is out to expose a fake guru and his ashram. Sanjay Dutt’s character will help Alia in ‘exposing’ the Baba.
This movie, like many other Bollywood movies which glorify Islam and make fun of Hindu culture, has portrayed a Hindu Sadhu in a bad light. This has particularly irked the Hindus, who have collectively demanded a boycott of the film for its demeaning portrayal of Hindu sadhus and saints.
It is pertinent to note here, that last month, when the poster of the movie was released, then too, the movie had run into controversy. In a complaint filed before a court in Muzaffarpur in Bihar, the filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt and Mukesh Bhatt, besides actor Alia Bhatt, were accused of “hurting Hindu sentiments” through the poster. The complainant had taken exception to the use of an image of Kailash Mansarovar (which is a place of pilgrimage for the Hindus) in the poster of Sadak 2, which is said to be a sequel to the 1991 film that originally starred Sanjay with Pooja Bhatt.
VHP leader Vijay Shankar Tiwari also highlighted in another tweet that how this Mahesh Bhatt’s film endorses nepotism. Tiwari wrote in Hindi: “सुनील दत्त के बेटे हैं संजय दत्त, महेश भट्ट की बेटियाँ हैं पूजा और आलिया, सिद्धार्थ रॉय कपूर के भाई हैं आदित्य, इन सबकी फिल्म है सड़क-2, जो आज रिलीज हुई है,अब महेश भट्ट को बताना होगा कि तुम्हारा और तुम्हारी फिल्म का हश्र खान ब्रदर्स जैसा ही होगा।यही है नेपोटिज्म है।” roughly traslated as “Sanjay Dutt is the son of Sunil Dutt, Alia and Pooja are the daughters of Mahesh Bhatt, Aditya Roy Kapur is the brother of Siddharth Roy Kapur. They all have acted in Sadak 2, which was released today. Now, it’s time to tell Mahesh Bhatt that he and his film will meet the same fate as Khan brothers. This is nepotism.”
Amid the raging debate about nepotism and favouritism in Bollywood, which was reignited after the untimely demise of the young actor Sushant Singh Rajput, a section of angry netizens uninstalled Disney+ Hotstar, the OTT app that is all set to premiere the comeback film of director Mahesh Bhatt, Sadak 2. On Monday, the angry social media users trended the hashtag #UninstallHotstar on Twitter, urging people to boycott the Bhatt family’s project.
Mahesh Bhatt’s alleged closeness with Sushant’s girlfriend, Rhea Chakraborty, who has now been charged with abetment to suicide in an FIR filed by the late actor’s father, is also believed to be one of the reasons of netizens’ wrath.
Amidst all of this, Alia Bhatt has turned off the comments section of her social media accounts including Instagram and Twitter. Sadak 2 will release on Disney+ Hotstar on August 28.
