Narendra Modi divides Bollywood? Madhur Bhandarkar, Vivek Oberoi endorse him

Days after a section of Bollywood artistes appealed the people to vote for a secular candidate, some others, including actor Vivek Oberoi and director Madhur Bhandarkar, today came out in support of BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi.

Bhandarkar said it was the appeal to vote for a secular candidate which prompted him to bat openly for Modi. The appeal to vote for secularism was the brainchild of writer Anjum Rajabali, which was endorsed by Mahesh Bhatt, Nandita Das, Zoya Akhtar, Kabir Khan, Imtiaz Ali, Vijay Krishna Acharya, singer Shubha Mudgal and others. It said though corruption and governance were important issues, the country's secular character was "not negotiable".

Today, Oberoi, Bhandarkar, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, Ashok Pandit, designer Vikram Phadnis, lawyer Satish Mane-Shinde (known for handling the cases of Bollywood stars) and some others declared their support for Modi.  "What they (Rajbali and others) did was wrong, it was absurd and obnoxious. Today's briefing (to press) was uncalled for if something like this had not come...then we wouldn't have had this thing. Let people decide who they want to vote for....What right you have to tell people all this?" said Bhandarkar, talking to PTI.

"Film industry is secular but there are some people who decide to do this because of their personal agenda. Creativity has no boundaries and cinema is a creative medium. We see cinema of all kinds, be it Italian, American, Indian etc, not because who is acting in it or making it but the creativity attracts us," he said.