After journalist Rana Ayub drew light to the Islamophobic undertones in Sooryavanshi, Pakistani President Arif Alvi is also calling out the film. While Hollywood’s Riz Ahmed has been highlighting this issue for a while now.
Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi expressed his disappointment over the cop drama.
“The first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, destroy its history.”
Dangerous for India. In this Islamophobic hatred India will destroy itself, no less. I hope & pray that sane elements within Indian society prevent this.
Milton Kandera wrote that 'the first step in liquidating a people is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, https://t.co/gcyX1sNnIE— Dr. Arif Alvi (@ArifAlvi) November 16, 2021
Venom star Rizwan Ahmed who is vocal about the lack of positive representation of Muslims onscreen recently called out the misrepresentation of Muslims in films.
He called out Hollywood for stereotyping Muslims in an interview with a news outlet.
“The game right now is messed up. The game right now is rigged, … Muslims are either not on screen or they are [and] they’re the bad guys. They’re perpetrators or victims of violence. We’re either invisible or we’re villainized, cause the stories we tell about our community affect the laws that get passed, the people that get attacked, the people that get invaded.”
Meanwhile, journalist Rana Ayyub put the spotlight on ‘Islamophobic elements’ in Bollywood’s Sooryavanshi in her article for the Washington Post. Initially, she shared her observations on Twitter.
“Yet another exercise in criminal Islamophobia that seeks to normalize Narendra Modi’s anti-Muslim agenda.”
One of the biggest films that is making waves in Indian theatres, is yet another exercise in criminal Islamophobia that seeks to normalise Narendra Modi's anti Muslim agenda. My latest on #Sooryavanashi that feeds into the Muslim as the terrorist narrativehttps://t.co/gntfJyPb2k
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) November 15, 2021
She asserts that this ‘feeds into the Muslim as terrorist narrative‘. She even went as far as to say that Bollywood is cultivating hate for a certain demographic much like Nazi propaganda films.
“Sooryavanshi is dangerous. After watching it, it’s impossible not to think of Nazi Germany, where Hitler cultivated a film industry that paid obeisance to him and made propaganda films against Jews”
Sooryavanshi” is dangerous. After watching it, it’s impossible not to think of Nazi Germany, where Hitler cultivated a film industry that paid obeisance to him and made propaganda films against Jews
— Rana Ayyub (@RanaAyyub) November 15, 2021
Sooryavanshi cast Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif as leads, with cameos by Ranveer Singh and Ajay Devgn. The film has already raked in over INR 150 crores at the Box-office.
