Watch: Actor Amol Palekar interrupted, speech cut off in an event in Mumbai over criticising BJP government
Veteran Actor and Director Amol Palekar was reportedly repeatedly interrupted during his speech at an event in Mumbai. Palekar was speaking at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Mumbai and was asked to cut off his speech after he criticized the BJP government.
Amol Palekar was speaking at an opening of an exhibition "Inside The Empty Box" in memory of artist Prabhakar Barwe. A video of the event has been circulating on social media showed actor Palekar criticising the Ministry of Culture for reportedly scrapping the advisory committees at the gallery's Mumbai and Bengaluru centres.
Watch how veteran actor Amol Palekar is stopped from making any critical comments during his speech for the inaugural of the Prabhakar Barwe retrospective at the NGMA Mumbai on Feb 8, 2019. pic.twitter.com/7lQAxcA1U1
— geeta seshu (@geetaseshu) February 9, 2019
"Many of you may not know that this retrospective will be the last show decided by the advisory committee of local artists and not by some bureaucrat or an agent of the government with an agenda of either moral policing or proliferation of certain art commensurate with an ideological incline," Amol Palekar said referring to news reports.
"As of November 13, 2018, the artistes' advisory committees at both regional centres Mumbai and Bangalore have been abolished, is what I have learnt," he said.
He added that he was "in the process of verifying the hearsay." Here he was interrupted by a gallery member on stage, saying that Amol Palekar should talk about the event.
"I am going to talk about the same. Are you applying censorship to that," Mr Palekar responded? He was again interrupted by a woman, who said, "This is not needed at the moment, sorry....The function is about Prabhakar Barwe, please stick to that."
Speaking a press conference Palekar said, “Director was present there & she even said that I should have spoken to her before speaking this here. I even replied whether my script would be censored before I speak.”
“I even told them that I wanted to thank the Ministry of Culture for the magnanimity of culture for showing this exhibition. She said she doesn't want any backhand compliment like this & left,” he added.
First published: 10 February 2019, 15:17 IST