The distasteful trend of cashing in on a successful product must stop in Hindi cinema. With Gadar 2: The Katha Continues breaking all records,ambitious avaricious elements have jumped into the fray.
Earlier this week there were completely unfounded reports of a sequel to Sunny Deol’s 1997 war epic Border.
We now have the producers of another Sunny Deol starrer Maa Tujhe Salaam, released in the year 2002 which was directed by fight coordinator Tinu Varma and proved a flop at the boxoffice, announcing a “sequel” … a sequel, one might add, that Sunny Deol is not aware of.
A source close to Sunny Deol responds to this me-too trend after Gadar 2 saying, “Border 2 or Maa Tujhe Salaam 2 or whatever, Sunny is no part of these fly-by-night projects which are blatant attempts at cashing in on the Gadar success. Gadar and Gadar 2 are blockbusters because of their honest intentions. They were not designed as provocative Paki-bashing vehicles.These announcements in the past week are nothing more than crude efforts to piggyback on the Gadar success.”
Significantly there seems to be a tendency post Gadar 2 to make Pakistan the villain of patriotic melodramas.
In the announcement of the supposed sequel to Maa Tujhe Salaam(which sources close to Sunny Deil reiterate, has nothing to do with the actor) the slogan on display is, “Doodh mangoge toh kheer denge/Kashmir mangoge toh Lahore bhi cheen denge.”
This is blatantly provocative jingoism. And Sunny Deol,it must be stated categorically, is no part of such slanderous sloganeering in the movie equivalent of pamphleteering.