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India’s birthday boy Modi gets another biopic
NEW DELHI, Sept 17, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Bollywood producers said Tuesday
India’s media-savvy Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to be the subject of what
looks set to be another flattering film about his life.
Earlier this year India’s election commission found a previous film so
hagiographic that in April it ordered the release be delayed until after
elections concluded on May 19. The new movie, “Mann Bairagi: Jab Mai Mujhse
Mila” (Recluse Heart: When I Met Myself), was announced by the production
house of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, one of India’s top filmmakers.
“I am sure it will connect and inspire our today’s youth deeply,” co-
producer Mahaveer Jain told the Hindustan Times daily.
The film delayed earlier this year by the election commission, “PM Narendra
Modi”, was panned by most critics with one reviewer saying it should be used
to “study how cinema can be used for propaganda”.
A similar fate befell an online series, “Modi: Journey of a Common Man”,
with the election commission ordering that streaming be stopped until voting
ended.
Modi also recounted his life story from tea seller’s son to premier in a
programme with British television adventurer Bear Grylls aired on the
Discovery Channel last month.
The announcement of the new movie, scheduled for winter release, coincided
with Modi’s 69th birthday which was widely covered in India media —
including his lunch with his nonagenarian mother.
A bakery in Modi’s home state Gujarat on Monday said that it would
celebrate by baking a 700-feet (213-metre) long cake weighing a supposed
seven tonnes (15,430 pounds).
Modi is to be joined by US President Donald Trump when he attends a
September 22 rally of Indian-Americans in Houston dubbed “Howdy, Modi!”, the
White House said Sunday.
While in the United States, Modi is also due to receive an award from the
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the progress India is making in improving
sanitation.
However British-Asian actors Jameela Jamil and Riz Ahmed had reportedly
dropped out of the event in protest at India’s move last month to strip the
region of Kashmir of its autonomy.
Last week a group of Asian Americans working in philanthropy published an
open letter saying the award would “signal the international community’s
willingness to overlook, and remain silent, in the face of the Indian
government’s brazen violation of human rights principles”.
BSS/AFP/SSS/1939 hrs