Shonali Bose defends herself after being slammed for not standing for national anthem in cinema hall: 'I won't do it...'

Filmmaker Shonali Bose, who was recently criticised for not standing up when the national anthem was being played at PVR Cinemas in Juhu before the movie Afwaah started, opened up about criticism that she received.

The director said that she was called ‘disgusting’ and ‘unpatriotic’ for not standing up. Later, she responded and posted a video by quoting famous lines by Rabindranath Tagore, “Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action, into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.”

Now, in a recent interview, the director reacted to the same. While speaking to Mid-Day, she said that she loves singing the national anthem but, “But I won’t do it in a theatre. That’s my government forcefully saying that this is how nationalistic fervour can be instilled. I went to watch the film with my friends. All of them stood up for the anthem, I didn’t. A man behind me shouted that I am disgusting and unpatriotic. The woman next to him joined in. I turned around, and asked them to shut up. The lady was so uncouth that I could feel her legs on my chair. Though I was sure of what I was doing, my stomach had tightened. No one wants a panga.”

She further mentioned that she is neither protesting the government nor the anthem. She said, “I am not protesting the anthem, or the government. I feel a movie theatre is not the appropriate place to shove nationalism down our throats. That is what I am protesting. It is disrespectful that people have popcorn in their mouths when they get up to show ‘respect’.”

“Patriotism is being able to speak your mind and having a conscience. It is about questioning the government at every step. I remember during the Emergency period, the government would play black-and-white propaganda films in theatres. This feels similar,” she concluded.