The power of attraction of Shah Rukh Khan, a romantic hero par excellence, overcame repeated calls for a boycott by Hindu extremists. After four years of absence, the Bollywood superstar is back on the small screen, Wednesday 25 January pathan, by far the most anticipated Indian film of the year. However, even before its release, the film fell victim to the controversy that is characteristic of the war being waged by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (Indian People’s Party, BJP) against wayward Bollywood that rejects the credit of power.

In a country plagued by religious intolerance, the title of this 146-minute film is enough to infuriate extremists. pathan refers to the Pashtun descendants of Afghanistan, the majority Muslim. But it was the snippet of one of the songs in the feature film that finally infuriated Hindu nationalists in early December.

Videos from Besharam ranking (“shameless color”, in Hindi), hotly choreographed, seems inoffensive. The film features actress Deepika Padukone in a saffron bikini, a color associated with Hinduism, and a Shah Rukh Khan wearing a green shirt, interpreted as a reference to Islam, the actor’s religion. It doesn’t take more boycott calls to ignite social networks.

Hindu nationalists see it as a lack of respect for their religion. Madhya Pradesh state home minister Narottam Mishra, who belongs to the BJP, threatened to ban the film for this reason. In several states, Bajrang Dal and Vishva Hindu Parishad, two Hindu extremist groups linked to the BJP, organized demonstrations against the film. In early January, in Gujarat, the stronghold of the Indian Prime Minister, they destroyed the poster for the film and insulted the 57-year-old Muslim actor with a crushing smile. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reportedly asked his party leaders to exercise restraint “unnecessary statement” about the film at the party’s annual executive meeting, Jan. 16-17.

The multicultural face of India

Despite these boycott calls, the public is there. The day before the film’s release, Tuesday January 24th, more than one million tickets have been sold on the BookMyShow platform. For the occasion, some cinemas opened at 6am. “I finished my night shift at 4:30am and came straight here. I haven’t been to the cinema since Shah Rukh’s last film, in 2018.”said Aakash Bhatia, in his thirties, as he waited for the 7.40am PVR cinema screening in Saket, New Delhi South, snapping a photo of himself in front of a poster.

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