Two senior Bollywood lyricists, Javed Akhtar and Sameer, said on Friday they were “shocked” to find their names in the credits on a poster of an upcoming film on Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Both denied having written songs for the movie, which is due for release on April 5, before Phase I of the Lok Sabha polls.
The trailer of the movie, titled ‘PM Narendra Modi’, and produced by actor Suresh Oberoi, Anand Pandit, Acharya Manish and Sandip Singh, was released on Thursday. On Friday morning, Akhtar tweeted, “Am shocked to find my name on the poster of this film. Have not written any songs for it!”
Sameer told TOI, “This is the first time in the history of our cinema that I think this is happening. Javed sahab rang me today and both of us were shocked at finding our names on the poster. More surprising is that none of the crew members are reachable. Neither the producer nor the director are answering calls, or their phones are switched off. Even team assistants are not available. We must know who put our names against songs we haven’t written.”
Producers of Modi film ‘go incommunicado’
One of the composers, Hitesh Modak, confirmed to TOI that he has given music for the film. However, when TOI put forward the lyricists’ denials, he disconnected the line. The phone was switched off afterwards.
The film features Vivek Oberoi in the lead and is directed by Omung Kumar Bhandula, who had earlier directed the Mary Kom biopic. The Oberois were not available for comment. A woman who picked up the phone at Pandit’s Juhu address first said he was not home and then denied it was his number. Another lyricist whose name figures on the poster, Prasoon Joshi, did not answer calls or text messages.
Sameer said he also contacted a senior officer at T-Series, which is releasing the music. According to Sameer, that officer too knew little about the source of information. “We are perturbed and will have to take some sort of action,” he said.
Meanwhile, the NCP’s cultural wing has submitted objections to the biopic’s release to the Pune district collector stating that the film’s release will amount to the violation of the election code of conduct. The wing hopes that the objections would be forwarded to the Election Commission of India (ECI) for appropriate action. NCP’s Babasheb Patil told TOI the ECI should ban release of the trailors on TV and social media. On March15, the Goa unit of the National Students’ Union of India had urged the ECI to ban the film’s screening in theatres during the 48-hour silence period.
Javed Akhtar
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