Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s demonetisation move as a national project of behavioural change on an unprecedented scale, Union Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday urged the film industry in India to join the collective cleansing efforts.
“There will be some bad money everywhere — in every part of society, in politics. Even in cinema also. We have to get rid of it at the earliest so that we can have a healthy life and a progressive future,” the Minister for Information and Broadcasting said.
“This cleansing should add good to the film industry also. I am happy that the first people to welcome the Prime Minister’s move were from the cinema industry — those heroes and directors. They have welcomed it. They have gone on Twitter,” Naidu said at the inaugural ceremony of the 47th International Film Festival of India, which got underway on Sunday.
“A national project of behavioural change of unprecedented scale has been set in motion in our country on November 8 in the form of withdrawal of high-value currency… this change process touches the lives of all citizens,” Naidu said.
“Some people are not able to sleep — or weep also — publicly, because of the predicament they are in, because they have a lot of unaccounted money. So the cleansing of India is going on,” Naidu said.
The Minister also commented on the lack of realism in contemporary Indian cinema and urged filmmakers to give up formulaic films and cut down on violence, vulgarity and obscenity that hurts society.
“Cinema must also have a message. That is what I am trying to say. Obscenity, violence, vulgarity… they are hurting society socially. Filmmakers need to shun laziness and give up (set) formula,” he said adding that the medium of cinema had to have a larger social responsibility.
