Manoj Bajpayee was recently interviewed by Arfa Khanum Sherwani, a journalist from The Wire. During the course of the interview, she had tried to put words in his mouth regarding the internal politics in Bollywood. She had also repetitively tried to make him agree to her statements about whether movies in Bollywood are created with a sinister purpose to defame a ‘particular community.’
At one point, the Family Man actor shut her down by saying, “There is an election every 4-5 years in the country. Whoever is afraid (that democracy will cease to exist) can contest elections against the government.” He also countered her arguments about Padmaavat being derogatory to a certain community, by quoting examples like Mughal-e-Azam. He added that any period film was part fact and part fiction and that “historical correctness” was not the key element to be looked for in such cases.
He also spoke about highly about movies like ‘Uri’, the same movie that had been mocked by Arfa on their portal as being filled with ‘toxic, hyper-nationalism.’
This isn’t the first time that Arfa had had an agenda behind such interviews, as fear-mongering as well as claiming that the democracy as we know it in India is dead and we are heading towards what she likes to call ‘Nazi Germany’. She was also found suggesting to protesters of the CAA-NRC protests to shed their Islamic identity while doing to ‘gain more support’.