Panaji: Celebrated Bollywood writer Ranjit Kapoor on Thursday said that there was a growing atmosphere of fear in India nowadays.
Kapoor, who wrote the dialogues for classic satire film ‘Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron’ (JBDY), on Thursday, said its makers would have been assaulted by fringe elements if the film were to be made today.
“The situation is such now, that if Kundan (Shah) was alive and we had decided that we will make another JBDY, then our legs would have been broken,” Kapoor said. He was addressing media at a program organized to pay homage to the film’s director Kundan Shah, who died in October this year.
“I feel more fear even now. The fear is more underlined than in the time when JBDY was made. At that time we used to feel that there is freedom of expression. I do not see it now. There are a lot of incidents which I am witnessing today, which convinces me that the world we live in is more dangerous, than the one which existed at the time of JBDY,” he said.
The low budget, noted for its satirical portrayal of corruption in the 1980s and criminal nexus between politicians and the businessmen, was released in 1983.
“The movie was against a powerful person. He was the chief minister of Maharashtra. He had a famous line for journalists that all journalists should be thrown in the Bay of Bengal. We had included the line in the film,” he said referring to A R Antulay, who was the chief minister of Maharashtra in the early 1980s.
“I feel that if Kundan was with us, I would compel him to make a deadly film,” Kapoor said.
Kapoor has also written dialogues for films like ‘Bandit Queen’ and ‘Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa’.
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