Mumbai: The producers of a new Amitabh Bachchan-starrer The Last Lear said on Tuesday that the film would open in cinemas in Maharashtra this week.
The announcement was made despite of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray’s threat to ban all Bachchan family movies and advertisements in Maharashtra.
Thackeray had issued the threat on Monday after Jaya Bachchan at the music launch of her son Abhishek’s movie Drona on Saturday said,” We are from Uttar Pradesh and we will speak in Hindi – Maharashtrians will forgive us.”
The remark irked MNS, which is a proponent of Marathi. The party then announced a boycott of films and products endorsed by any member of the Bachchan.
Reports also said that the MNS party workers in Mumbai tore down posters of Amitabh Bachchan's The Last Lear," an English-language film slated for release on Friday.
But producers Planman Motion Pictures said that there were no plans to delay the film’s release.
"A film release is not based on emotional issues, there are practical and monetary considerations as well," company CEO Shubho Shekhar Bhattacharjee said.
"If the film’s release is delayed in Mumbai by a day or two due to this matter and we lose some money, so be it," he added. "If they have a problem they should sort it out personally.”
The Last Lear director Rituparno Ghosh said the issue was a result of an "impulsive reaction" but declined to comment further.
In the film, Amitabh plays a reclusive stage actor who quotes Shakespeare with relish and who somewhat reluctantly is making his movie debut at the age of 65.
Jaya apologised for her remarks in an interview published in the Mumbai Mirror on Tuesday, saying she did not mean to hurt anyone’s feelings.
Last week, some the MNS party activists were arrested for vandalising shops in the city after owners failed to put up signboards in Marathi language.
Earlier this year, the MNS workers in Maharashtra were accused of intimidation, damaging vehicles and beating up taxi drivers, who are mostly migrants.
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