Shiv Sena and Uddhav Thackeray’s desperation at the prospect of the showbiz business shifting from Mumbai to UP seems to be driving the Sena supremo into making veiled threats to CM Yogi Adityanath. After the UP CM announced that he would be building a sprawling Film City complex in Noida, the Maharashtra CM, for the second time in as many months, has come up with his verbal attack on Yogi by challenging him if he has the courage to take the Film City to UP, then he can take it.
“There are talks of taking Mumbai’s FilmCity to Uttar Pradesh….take it there…good…if you have capability surely take it there…however, in Maharashtra, we will ensure that what comes out is quality,” said Thackeray on Thursday whilst speaking in a webinar.
Thackeray further questioned the ability of Chief Minister Yogi and said that if he has the ability to do then run the film industry. The Maharashtra CM also played the ‘Marathi Manoos’ card and evoked Dadasaheb Phalke to drive his point ahead.
Thackeray remarked that a “Marathi-manoos” laid the foundation of the film industry. “Maharashtra was janmabhoomi and karmabhoomi of Dadasaheb Phalke…today the biggest national award is named after hin. We will continue the rich tradition,” he said.
Reported by TFI, while Yogi’s announcement was welcomed by the common public and film enthusiasts alike, certain Mumbai industry elites were indeed apprehensive about the grand plans of Yogi Adityanath.
The most perturbed, however, has been Uddhav Thackeray, who has resorted to borderline threats against the UP government’s plans at shifting the film industry from Mumbai to Noida.
“Bollywood enjoys a following across the globe. The film industry generates huge employment. In the last few days, attempts have been made to malign the image of the film industry by certain quarters, which is painful,” Uddhav Thackeray had said back then and added, “Moves to finish off the film industry or shift it elsewhere will never be tolerated.”
By federalising the country’s film city and making Noida the new centre of ‘Bollywood’, the Yogi government is all set to snatch away the political patronage which many stars in Mumbai currently enjoy, and whose ties to the present establishment of Maharashtra were seemingly exposed during the entire Sushant Singh Rajput saga.
Yogi Adityanath has once again set an example for other states, to base mini film industries out of their territories, thus giving ample employment opportunities to the people who don’t have the privilege of going to Mumbai to pursue their dreams of becoming film stars. Further, the decision to make a mega film city in Greater Noida is bound to be the final nail in the coffin of a discriminatory Bollywood industry, whose survival, in any case, stands on the edge. Uddhav Thackeray who is in the utopia of believing that Bollywood and the Filmcity are a patent of Maharashtra and his party is in for a rude shocker as Yogi Adityanath goes all out for the kill. His weak statement to threaten the monk CM are bot going to make an iota of a difference.