Many people in Afghanistan were apprehensive about the latest Bollywood release ‘Panipat’ before the movie hit the screens.
The acting foreign minister Idrees Zaman had even raised the issue with Indian officials.
“Acting minister of foreign affairs H.E. Idrees Zaman met in his office with the Ambassador of the Republic of India to Kabul Vinay Kumar, this afternoon," a statement released by the Afghan Foreign Ministry in November - weeks before the movie was released - read.
"The meeting focused on the theme of the upcoming Bollywood film ‘Panipat’ as well as the two countries’ stance in relation to this cinematic artwork.”
‘Panipat’, directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar portrays the third battle of Panipat, is in cinemas and many people of Afghanistan are not liking it.
For Arezo Zoe Safi, a Sydney-based lawyer and human rights activist of Afghan origin, the portrayal of Afghanistan is distasteful.
“The way Afghanistan and particularly our former king Ahmed Shah Abdali or we call Ahmed Shah Durrani or Baba, which is an equivalent of calling him father, the founding father of our country, has been portrayed is quite distasteful,” Ms Safi told SBS Hindi.
‘Panipat’ portrays the the third battle of Panipat fought on 14 January 1761, between the aggressor Abdali and Indian kings of Maratha - rulers of an Indian empire.
To Indians, Abdali was an invader who killed thousands in and around Delhi during and after the battle of Panipat. However, to Afghans, Abdali is their hero and a great warrior.
“He is the founder of the modern state of Afghanistan. We call him Baba. Like a father. I think it is safe to say that he is equivalently respected as the equivalent to Mahatma Gandhi in India,” says Ms Safi, whose family had taken political refuge in India when she was two years old.
SBS Hindi has reached out to the director of the film Ashutosh Gowarikar for his response to the concerns of Afghan people and a response is awaited.
However, Ms Safi says this is not the first time a Bollywood movie has portrayed Afghanistan in a bad light.
“It also happened in the movie 'Padmawat' where Alaudin Khilji was ridiculed. And mind you we all loved Ranveer Singh’s acting, but people were already starting to recognise that Afghans are stereotyped in a movie,” said Ms Safi.
