Culture, art soft targets for fanatics’

On the controversy over Deepa Mehta’s controversial film Fire, he said, "I am fully in favour of freedom of expression. However the entire brouhaha was unnecessary. If there is anything that anybody had against the film, then it needed to be discussed instead of resorting to strong arm tactics." He added, "The attendant media publicity is too much of an attraction for the fanatics who have increased both the frequency and strength of their diatribe."

The fanaticism of the Shiv Sena has been around long before theM F Husain controversy over the Saraswati paintings, he said. Reminiscing the time when Chief Minister Manohar Joshi led a mob of sainiks to disrupt the staging of his play Sakharam Binder claiming it was offensive, he said, "Joshi and his group just stormed the Ravindra Natya Mandir, broke equipment and took over the stage to announce that the show had been cancelled without the slightest clue as to what the play was actually about." It was only later when a special show was organised for Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray who approved of the show did the Sena relent.

Referring to the Sena chief, Tendulkar said, "He has conveniently hijacked the label of Hindu Hriday Samrat which the people had lovingly conferred on Veer Savarkar. What right does he have to use the name of Shivaji to achieve his own agenda when he is doing nothing remotely close to the values of the great Maratha king?"

He felt that sometimes film-makers unwittingly give scope for trouble from the culture police. "There was lot ofpublicity to the lesbian angle in Fire long before it’s release when the the film has something else to say," he said and asked, "why do the Sena and other like-minded fanatic groups find it easy to attack culture and art only?"

Later, while inaugurating the conference the Padmabhushan winner who has written the scripts and dialogues for the critically acclaimed Manthan (which won him the National award), Aakrosh and Ardhasatya, said his keen sense of listening without being in a hurry to speak and observe had helped him a lot in his work as a playwright. "I have been criticised for asking questions through my works without giving answers," he told the delegates, "but I have still not found them."