An attempt has been made to tarnish the image of Datta Samant in the film by "wrongly" showing that the textile mills in the city closed down due to the strike, said Dada Samant.
The family of slain trade union leader Datta Samant has slapped a legal notice on noted film-maker Mahesh Manjrekar for "wrongly" projecting him in his latest movie Lalbaug-Parel and seeking a public apology.
A delegation of Maharashtra Girni Kamgar Union, led by its president Dada Samant, who is brother of the trade union leader, staged a demonstration outside Bharatmata theatre in Mumbai yesterday to protest against the film which held Datta Samant solely responsible for closure of textile mills following a
prolonged strike in early 1980s.
"We have served a notice on Manjrekar asking him to tender an apology in public saying Dr Datta Samant was not responsible for the closure of textile mills, failing which we shall be compelled to take legal action against him in a court of law," Dada Samant told PTI.
An attempt has been made to tarnish the image of Datta Samant in the film by "wrongly" showing that the textile mills in the city closed down due to the strike, he said.
However, the fact is they shut down following the Government's policy allowing vacant land of textile mills to be used for real estate development, he said.
Many children from the families of textile workers have become doctors and engineers and not goons as shown in the Marathi film, Dada Samant said.
Manjrekar's film should have portrayed the real reason behind the textile mills' closure instead of holding him responsible for it, Dada Samant said.
"The 1982 textile strike has nothing to do with the story of Manjrekar's film which has shown one trade union leader Dr Sawant (instead of Dr Samant) responsible for the closure of textile mills."
"Manjrekar needs to explain to people that his film's story line has nothing to do with the textile strike of 1982. Otherwise, it would be a grave injustice to the image of the trade union leader who devoted his life to the cause of textile workers," Dada Samant said.
Manjrekar's bilingual film, which released on April 9, highlights the plight of textile mill workers in Lalbaug and Parel areas of the metropolis.
The Hindi version of the movie is called, City of Gold.
After the 1982 strike, Samant became a force to reckon with and rose to become a militant trade union leader and an independent member of Parliament.
He was shot dead on January 16, 1997, by gunmen near his house in Powai.
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