Actors and filmmakers are always eager to hold special screenings of their films for politicians. Aamir Khan is known to hold special screenings for politicians like veteran leader L.K. Advani and Raj Thackeray. Advani is a known movie-buff and has a long-standing relationship with filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra. So it’s no surprise that he doesn’t fail to catch up on the latest offerings from Bollywood, especially from the Chopra stable.
When Chak De! India (2007) and My Name Is Khan (2010) had released, Shah Rukh Khan was personally lauded by the then President of our country, Pratibha Patil, at a special screening at Rashtrapati Bhavan. While stars like Aamir and Shah Rukh have been known to host special screenings for political leaders regularly, this trend has caught up with other film industries in the country too.
After the massive success of S.S. Rajamouli’s magnum opus Baahubali, actor Prabhas was spotted meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and home minister Rajnath Singh in the capital. While Modi has promised the actor that he’ll watch the film, Singh admitted that he liked it a lot.
When actors and filmmakers show their movies to politicians, it does get acceptance from another strata of society. Producer Tanuj Garg says, “If a film has become a talking point, then surely there could be a certain interest from political parties. It helps that even a minister has appreciated the film, which results in positive word-of-mouth publicity. Moreover, it’s also the perfect photo-op for both the parties involved.”
After the box office success and all the critical acclaim that Shoojit Sircar’s Piku received in recent times, Amitabh Bachchan was present at the special screening of the film for President Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Being personally appreciated by the President himself was certainly the icing on the cake for team Piku.
Even director Neeraj Ghaywan’s award-winning film Masaan was watched by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at a special screening, Kejriwal later Tweeted: “Just saw Masaan. Excellent movie. A must watch”.
But Neeraj had another agenda for showing the film to Kejriwal. “We wanted a tax rebate for Masaan in Delhi. And the Delhi CM has assured us that he will try for it in a week or so. Earlier, Akhilesh Singh Yadav had also allotted some land for film production in Uttar Pradesh. Such government initiatives will encourage people to try their hand at filmmaking,” Neeraj says.
