New Delhi: Actors Junaid Khan, Jaideep Ahlawat and filmmaker Siddharth P. Malhotra have finally spoken about facing “hurdles” ahead of the release of their film “Maharaj” and said they did not intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments and the film was made with sensitivity.
Junaid, who started his career with the film “Maharaj”, based on events related to the 1862 Maharaj defamation case, had courted controversy ahead of its release when a stay order was passed on a petition claiming that the film hurt certain religious sentiments.
On June 13, the Gujarat High Court lifted its temporary stay on the release of “Maharaj” on streaming giant Netflix after it claimed it did not target the religious sentiments of a certain sect as alleged by its members.
Speaking to IANS, Malhotra said that the film is based on the book and the court case that was against an ideology. “I really don’t know what to say because when we wrote the script of our film based on the details of the book or the court case, it was against one person’s ideology.
Junaid (in the film) says, ‘My problem is not with them, but with their thinking.’ He is only fighting against one person’s ideology, not against a community…” He stressed that neither he nor his team would hurt anyone’s sentiments.
He said, “Even with Jaideep Ahlawat, in his entire take… did he apologise for what I did? He never apologised because his character feels what he is doing is right. So, it is a clash of ideologies.” For the director, it was a story of ‘David and Goliath’. He added, “Now that people have seen the film, they understand that we never meant to hurt any person’s sentiments.”
Junaid, son of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan, said the film has been made with a lot of “sensitivity”. “It is a sensitive film and Sid sir has also made it with a lot of sensitivity. I think at the end of the day the film released and people liked it… so, I think at the end of the day we haven’t hurt anybody,” he told IANS.
Actor Jaideep Ahlawat said that he “intended to make this film as a story”. “Which is actually about certain things, but never against anything that would hurt those sentiments… Our intention was not to hurt anyone’s sentiments and that’s how we emerged as winners,” Jaideep said.
