Even as the debate around Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi’s “India love” rages across real and virtual platforms, fellow Pakistani Fawad Khan has stepped in to back the sports star up with his own take on the matter. On a promotional visit to the capital for his upcoming Bollywood release, Kapoor & Sons, the actor opened up on the issue and termed it a classic case of the snowball effect. “I think this happens all the time — the way I see it, koi ek banda ungli karke chala jaata hai about something that may have been said in an entirely different spirit from what it is ultimately being construed to reflect. I travelled with Afridi on a flight once, and I have seen for myself the kind of love and adulation he receives from Indian fans. He was nearly swamped by the Indian air hostesses! What I think has happened here is that he was just trying to say something simple that was plucked out of context and turned into something else altogether.
The question he was answering was about whether he feels worried about going to India and playing there at the moment and he had said that he isn’t worried because he has received so much love from his Indian fans… sometimes more even than fans in his own hometown. It’s a simple way of easing up the atmosphere, an expression of good-natured bonhomie to diffuse the tension, that’s all. If someone has picked it up and taken advantage of it by turning it into a much bigger deal than it really is, then I believe it is something that will just die its own death. It’s not like Afridi’s patriotism is any lesser now than it was before he made the statement. He is a very proud Pakistani and we’re very proud to have him as a representative of our country. This whole thing should be taken with a pinch of salt,” he affirmed.
Fawad added, “Similar things happen here in India too and they’re just in bad taste. We’ve made this whole issue so much bigger than it is, and made it so vehemently about India v/s Pakistan that other more important sentiments have been lost. Afridi said what he said very affectionately and in response to a specific question. From there, it has just had a snowball effect and this can happen anywhere with anyone.”
Asked, then, to comment on the tension that surrounds India v/s Pakistan cricket matches in general, he said, “There is always excitement surrounding cricket matches between the two countries. I think they’re the most exciting matches in any series, and it’s fun competition. Bachpan mein hum dil pe liya karte the but now we’ve grown up and calmed down. Competition should just be good fun.”
Talking about the entertainment industry back home and how it compares with the entertainment industry in India, he shared, “One foundational difference is that the Pakistani film industry experienced a certain demise in the 80s and then went into oblivion for about 25 years. Now it has rebooted again, but because of that demise the scale of the industry has been reduced a lot. It is only now that theatres are mushrooming across the country and beginning to flourish.”
