Anger - Bollywood cashes in on Mumbai attack

The Times

Bollywood may be famed for its relentless energy, but its rush to dramatise last month’s terrorist attacks on Mumbai has triggered a public outcry.

The gunmen who struck the city were still on the loose when its indomitable film industry began bashing out the first screenplay. In the days following the strikes, which claimed 173 lives, some 18 related film titles were registered with the Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association.

The first – “26/11 at Mumbai Operation” -- was applied for on November 28, when Indian Army commandos were still fighting a cadre of heavily-armed militant gunmen room-to-room in two luxury hotels. The producer behind it, Vijay Verma of Salt and Pepper Entertainment, says his script is ready and shooting is slated to begin in a matter weeks. “What happened must be brought before the public,” he said.

Few onlookers agree, however, and the unseemly haste to immortalise the Mumbai atrocities has met with poor reviews.

Just hours after the attacks ended, it emerged that Ram Gopal Verma, one of India’s best-known directors, and his actor son had been among the first people allowed inside the Taj Mahal Palace hotel, where scores of people died. That Mr Verma, renowned for his action-packed depictions of Mumbai’s criminal underworld, was allowed in triggered widespread anger.

“Obviously his intention was to make a film of the attacks,” Komal Nahta, the publisher of The Film Street Journal, a leading Bollywood trade magazine, said. “And the media went at him with hammer and tongs.”

The public distaste may reflect the sensationalist treatments often meted out by Bollywood. India cinema has a long history of films that address current affairs, but most dealing with terrorism have used real-life events as springboards for crudely nationalistic action movies, critics say.

“There have been many attempts to make films on terrorism, but 90 per cent fall into jingoistic, partisan points of view,” Piyush Jha, a director, said. “Indian films don’t explore Islamic fundamentalism … India looks at things in black and white, and doesn’t examine the greys.”

The titles registered in the wake of the Mumbai attacks – which include “Taj Terror”, “Bird’s Point of View of Taj Terror” and “11/26 Operation Taj” – have convinced many that the producers hoping to make them are unlikely to break new ground.