Former England spinner Monty Panesar has strongly reprimanded the Bollywood movie ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, starring Aamir Khan. Panesar feels the film’s portrayal of the lead character, who is a Sikh is “disrespectful” and “disgraceful” to the Indian Armed Forces, Indian Army and Sikhs.
Former England off-spinner then addressed how in ‘Forrest Gump’, the inspiration behind ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, the US was recruiting low IQ men for the Vietnam War, which isn’t the case for Indian Armed Forces. Hence the film is disrespectful towards the Indian Army and the Sikh community.
He tweeted, “Forrest Gump fits in the US Army because the US was recruiting low IQ men to meet requirements for the Vietnam War. This movie is total disgrace to India Armed Forces Indian Army and Sikhs !! Disrespectful. Disgraceful. #BoycottLalSinghChadda,” wrote Monty Panesar.
Monty Panesar then posted a list of the number of honours won by Sikhs who have served in the Indian Army and then demanded to ban Aamir Khan’s newest film with #BoycottLalSinghChadda. The tweet said, “1 Padma Vibhushan, 1 Padma Bhushan, 21 Indian Order of Merits, 14 Victoria Crosses, 2 Param Vir Chakras, 4 Ashoka Chakras, 8 Maha Vir Chakras, 24 Kirti Chakras, 64 Vir Chakras, 55 Shaurya Chakras, 375 Sena Medals, #BoycottLalSinghChadda”
Even before the movie was released, the controversy stirred up after thousands of netizens urged everyone to boycott it. The reason behind the boycott was Aamir Khan’s controversial statements in the past and the portrayal of the Hindu religion in his movie PK.
Recently, Aamir was asked about the boycott calls to which he replied by saying that he doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments but hopes that the film to be successful and give justice to the hard work put in by the entire team behind the film.
“I do not want to hurt anyone, but if people don’t want to see the film, I would respect that too. There is not much you can do about that. But I would still want Laal Singh Chaddha to reach a wide audience. A movie is brought to life by a team of a hardworking crew and artists, so I just hope people like it.”