Mumbai: Amid the controversy related to writer-producer-director Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (ADHM) having an actor from Pakistan, Mumbai’s commissioner of police D.D. Padsalgikar said on Thursday that his department’s enquiry has revealed that all Pakistani actors working in the city had work permits.
The movie is set to be released on Friday, a week after chief minister Devendra Fadnavis’ “intervention” wherein MNS chief Raj Thackeray and Producers’ Guild president Mukesh Bhatt met at his official residence (Varsha) on Saturday morning and mutually agreed to allow the film to be released peacefully. Mr Padsalgikar said that the police enquiry in the light of the ADHM controversy found no irregularities related to the Pakistani actors’ stay in the city, though they had all left the city once the protests broke out. The commissioner said that the police checked the travel documents to verify allegations that certain Pakistani actors had entered the country on tourist visas but began working.
Mr Padsalgikar told The Asian Age, “Pakistani actors work in Bollywood because they have work permits. When they apply for a visa, they have to mention that they plan to visit the country to work. The people for whom the actors work in Bollywood are the ones who sponsor the visit and arrange for the work permits. You cannot get work if you don’t have a work permit.”
In the wake of the Uri attack, the MNS had issued an ultimatum to Pakistani artistes to leave the city and the country within 48 hours or else face action. The party workers had also alleged that most of the artistes from Pakistan working in Bollywood did not have valid visas and sought work despite having entered the country on tourist visas. Following this, certain party workers had also issued letters to cinema theatre owners in the city, threatening them with action if they slotted shows for ADHM, which has Fawad Khan, a Pakistani actor, acting in it. The Azad Maidan police had detained 12 MNS workers in a preventive measure.
But Shalini Thackeray, spokesperson, MNS, said that there are many irregularities that the police have no way of checking. “Most of the Pakistani artistes come to the city on their own on tourist visas and then seek work here. For example, Veena Malik came to the city on a business visa and then acted in movies here. But the police have no way of tracking these things because it is the responsibility of the employers to get proper documents in place for workers coming from outside the country,” she said.
(This article was originally published in The Asian Age)
