File photo of actor Vivek Oberoi
Days after a section of Bollywood artistes issued an open appeal to the people and urged them 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.
(Anti-Modi appeal from Bollywood personalities leaves film industry divided)
Mr Bhandarkar said it was the appeal to vote for a secular candidate which prompted him to bat openly for
Mr 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.
Though corruption and governance were important issues, stated the appeal, the country's secular character was "not negotiable".
Today, Mr Oberoi, Mr 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 Mr Modi.
(Narendra Modi's 'RSVP' jibe at the Gandhi family)"What they (Rajbali and others) did was wrong, it was absurd and obnoxious. Today's briefing (to the press) was uncalled for if something like this had not come, then we wouldn't have had this thing. Let the people decide who they want to vote for. What right do you have to tell people all this," said Mr Bhandarkar.
(India Votes 2014: coverage)"The film industry is secular but there are some people who decided 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 of who is acting in it or making it but because the creativity attracts us," he said.