'My country comes first': Watch Nana Patekar channel his innner Krantiveer

The Uri attack and Pakistan’s continued support of terrorists led to a demand on the ban of Pakistani artistes in various quarters. While MNS asked for a ban on Pakistani artistes, the Indian Motion Pictures Association also asked for a ban on Pakistani artistes until there’s a return of normalcy. Bollywood superstar Salman Khan on the other hand backed Pakistani artists saying: “They are artists not terrorists. It’s the government who gives them permits and visas.” Now Nana Patekar lived up to his Krantiveer character and hit out at those talking about Pakistani actors in Bollywood. He said: “Pakistani actors and others come later, first comes my country. I don't know anyone other than my country and would never like to know. Actors are like khatmal (bed bugs) in front of the country, we have no worth." Taking a dig at Salman Khan, he added: “Don't concentrate on what we say, you know who I'm talking about, right.”

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Earlier the Shiv Sena slammed Salman Khan’s support saying:  'This maybe Salman Khan's matter, but the stand of Shiv Sena is clear that the country which has taken up enmity with us, killed innocent people and infiltrated borders at several areas, we do not think it's appropriate to maintain relations with any artists or players from that nation. These are feelings of the nation and only patriotic people can understand them,' Desai said.

'Salman Khan should take the advice and counsel of his father, Salim Khan,' Desai added, when asked about his opinion on this matter...It may be his personal opinion, but we don't agree with it and we should not maintain any kind of relation with Pakistan which is also the stand of the Shiv Sena,' he added.

"Pakistani artistes are just artistes and not terrorists. Terrorism and art are two different subjects. They come with proper visa and the government gives them a work permit." Salman said, when asked about his take on banning the actors from Pakistan. 

The actor said the action (surgical strike) taken by the Indian Army is proper as it was against terrorism, but he would prefer to have a situation of peace and harmony. "Ideal situation should have been that of peace. But, now a reaction to an action has happened. It was a proper action as they were terrorists. But still in this day and age, I think if we lived in peace an harmony it would have been better for everyone and especially for common people," he said while speaking at the launch of his jwellery range for Being Human. 

Last week, Raj Thackeray-led MNS issued an ultimatum to Pakistani artistes and actors including Fawad Khan, who is part of one of the productions under Salman's banner, and Ali Zafar, to leave India by September 25 or else they would be "pushed out".

Right after the Uri attack, political wing MNS decided to ban Pakistani artists from India. This was followed by The Indian Motion Pictures Producers' Association's (IMPPA) resolution to ban the Pak artists till normalcy returns. When asked about the ban, Salman defended the artists saying, "Terrorists and artists are different. Do you think there is no difference between an actor and a terrorist' Actors come here with a proper visa granted by government. They have a proper work permit."

However, when talking about the surgical strike carried out by the Indian Army across the Line of Control (LoC) on Thursday, the Bollywood icon stated that it was an apt reaction to the neighbouring country's action in Uri that killed 19 innocent Indian soldiers. Two Pakistani soldiers and over 30 terrorists were reportedly killed in the surgical strike carried out by the Indian Army. The action was in response to the terrorist attack at Uri in Jammu and Kashmir that killed 19 Indian Army soldiers.