I was? ready to walk alone, but 15,000 people joined me: Anupam Kher

Mumbai: Countering the protests by writers and artistes against "rising intolerance", Bollywood actor Anupam Kher led a march to Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday alleging that the "award-waapsi" campaign was to defame the country by projecting a "wrong" picture of the situation. After a successful march and meeting with President Pranab and Prime Minister Modi, Anupam let us in on his ‘historic’ march.

Anupam said, “It was historic, simply historic. I never expected this kind of support.”

“I was outraged at the selective outrage being displayed by the so-called intelligentsia. When I decided to undertake that protest march on Saturday I didn’t think of the repercussions or how I’d look on television. I was ready to walk alone. I’ve always followed the lonely path from the time I played a 60-year old man in ‘Saaraansh’ when I was in my 20s. I never expected so many people to join me on Saturday. We had 15,000 people with us. It was historic.”

Filmmakers Madhur Bhandarkar and Ashoke Pandit also flew to Delhi to join Anupam in this unprecedented protest against the protesters.

The actor laughs and says, “Yes, that is what it was. A protest against protesters. I was discouraged from undertaking it by some well-wishers who felt token gestures such as candle vigils and protest marches hold no relevance. But I decided to take on the hypocritical token protests of authors and filmmakers with my own token protest. I never expected it would work so well.”

Anupam says he was ready to take that walk alone if he had to.

“I was really not worried about who joined me for this march. If folks from the film fraternity come they were most welcome. People from all walks of life were welcome. But I was not taking this walk to protest in a mass group. This was my conviction and I was determined to stand by it alone.”