If we were to choose the top three words that made the headlines during the last two years, they have to be – Anti-nationalism, Intolerance and Sedition. Whether he was guilty or not, actor Aamir Khan fell prey to the so-called judges of the society when he made a sensitive remark at a public event pertaining to religious intolerance in the country and that it made her wife think about leaving India at a point of time.
Well, the country was just getting over the JNU incident when all this happened and as one would’ve expected, Khan received a lot of flak from the political parties as well as the Bollywood community. And the torch bearer of this entire lets-boycott-his-movies-and-send-him-to-Pakistan was apparently the ruling party BJP and its right-wing Hindu nationalist arm, the RSS.
Fast forward 2 years.
Recently, at the 75th Dinanath Mangeshkar awards in Mumbai, Aamir Khan was honoured with the Vishesh Purashkar for his performance in the movie, Dangal, by RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, the leader of the same party which tagged Khan with the term, anti-national, two years ago.
This is to be noted that it was the first award function that Khan has attended in the last 16 years.
Other than Khan, actress Vyjayanthimala and former cricketer Kapil Dev, were also awarded for outstanding contribution in their respective fields. Singer Lata Mangeshkar, daughter of classical vocalist Dinanath Mangeshkar, was also present at the event.
Well, two years have passed and the situation has calm down. However, the fact still remains that the movie which was supposed to be boycotted then was Dangal, for which Khan has now been awarded the ‘Vishesh Purashkar’ at the ceremony. Serves as a good lesson in think-before-you-act, doesn’t it?
