‘I can’t tolerate intolerance’

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is concerned about the frequency with which free speech is coming under attack in the country, the latest being the ban on Fanaa in Gujarat. This is what prompted him, along with Ahmedabad-based NGO Jansangharsh Manch, to file the petition against the ban in the Supreme Court on Thursday.

“The petition is to raise my voice against the trend of intolerance in the country,” Bhatt said on Friday.

“As a responsible Indian, I wanted to go beyond mere rhetoric and, hence, this petition,” said Bhatt, who had also approached the court (along with Javed Akhtar and Dilip Kumar) when Deepa Mehta’s Fire ran into trouble with fundamentalists.

Bhatt said organisations like the BJP’s Yuva Morcha (Gujarat) and Congress-affiliated NSUI (Gujarat) were opposing the release of the film without any reason. “The Gujarat government is either conniving with these organisations to prevent the release or is refusing to take steps to stop them from adopting illegal means to disrupt the film’s release,” he said.