No pressure on Karan Johar to pay Rs 5 crore, says Mukesh Bhatt

Slamming the media and politicians for targeting ace director Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (ADHM), Producers’ Guild president Mukesh Bhatt said that there was no pressure on ADHM director Karan Johar to fork out Rs 5 crore as army ‘welfare fund’ or to screen a message honouring Indian soldiers. “This is not something that has been thrust on Karan. He voluntarily felt the need to honour our martyrs with a mention in his credit titles. No one is forcing him to do so. Also no one is bullying us to pay money towards soldiers’ welfare. If Karan or any of the other filmmaker want to contribute to the soldiers’ welfare fund, they are welcome to do so. There is no compulsion,” he said.

Mr Bhatt said the media targeted Bollywood unfairly just because it is a high-profile and a glamorous industry. “Trade between India and Pakistan continues uninterrupted. Then why were we targeted for censure just because a few Pakistani artistes worked in our films ” he asked.

The filmmaker who was much relieved the issue had been sorted said, “We can all breathe a sigh of relief now. Karan was a wreck for the past few weeks. This exemption applies not only to Karan’s film but also to the other filmmakers who had worked with Pakistani artistes before the current crisis.

Gauri Shinde (Dear Zindagi), Ritesh Sidhwani (Raees) and Boney Kapoor (Mom) can also heave a sigh of relief. But we won’t be working with Pakistani artistes any more. Our soldiers are being killed. Pakistan is spreading terror in our nation. We should isolate them in every sphere,” he said.