Director Abhishek Kapoor is a relieved man these days, albeit with little misgivings. His film Kedarnath after many ups-and-downs finally released on December 7 and has got a good reaction from the audience and the critics as well. The film starring Sushant Singh Rajput and Sara Ali Khan is based on the Kedarnath floods that ravaged the valley in 2013. Abhishek in an interview spoke about the fact that his film has been banned in Uttarakhand and also spoke about his belief in Hinduism and the fact that his film deals with the love story of a Muslim pithoo and a Hindu girl.
Abhishek spoke about the fact that his film Kedarnath is banned and Uttarakhand and said, “It is very upsetting. How can they do this? When the government has cleared it, the whole country is watching it, how can they stop my film? Uttarakhand is an integral part of the country. What happens to my freedom of expression?”
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Abhishek Kapoor[/caption]
Kedarnath has also received some condemnation for showing a Muslim pithoo as the main character and the love that brews between him and a Hindu girl, propagating the love-jihad concept. However, he said, “But that is very much the reality. They (Muslim pithoo) are at Vaishno Devi, Amarnath, Kedarnath. They do their job with utmost sincerity. And what could be more gratifying for a pilgrim than to be taken to the purest place by a Muslim. That's how we are as Hindus. We have an all-encompassing cultural tradition. Our ideology is such that it assimilates all. If you are a Shiv Bhakt you would know how He swallowed poison to save the world. "Har Har mahadev" means there is God in all of us. Why can't we accept the sheer acceptability and inclusiveness of our religion? This is who we are. When I spoke to Salim Saab (writer Salim Khan), he observed that 40 years ago there was no Hindu-Muslim issue. It is the politics of the nation that has brought this divide into our culture.”
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Abhishek Kapoor, Sara Ali Khan and Sushant Singh Rajput[/caption]
Abhishek was also asked about the sensitivity about inter-religious relationships and the fact that sometimes it seems misguided, so he said, “I would say we need to take a more mature view of the matter. Kedarnath is a clean honest attempt to look at the devastation that the people there in Uttarakhand suffered after the 2013 floods. They are yet to recover from the shock. My film is a small gesture of healing for a people who lost everything and still had the resilience to bounce back. So many lives and families were destroyed. As a responsible filmmaker, I wouldn't dream of making an exploitative film about their misery.”
The film has been garnering good moolah at the box office and has received positive reviews as well. Kedarnath faced a lot of production issues as the production house changed hands and was almost stalled until Ronnie Screwvala came to help pull the picture out of the doldrums.
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