IT HAS emerged that Bollywood film-makers have been queuing up to register film titles based on last month’s terrorist attacks in Mumbai, prompting suggestions of insensitivity and bad taste.
According to the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association in India’s film capital, Mumbai, at least 18 titles associated with the November 26th attacks, in which the city’s Taj Mahal and Oberoi Trident hotels and a nearby Jewish centre were besieged by gunmen, have been registered so far.
These include: 26/11 Mumbai Under Terror; Operation Five-star Mumbai; Taj to Oberoi; 48 Hours at the Taj and Black Tornado.
According to Ujwala Londhe of the producers’ association, the first title was registered as early as November 28th, a day before the siege was lifted following firefights between national security guard commandos and the gunmen.
“These applications will be studied by our committee and, if anything is inappropriate, we’ll advise them to change it,” said Sushma Shiromanee, also of the producers’ association.
“These procedures take almost a month.”
The attacks claimed more than 170 lives. India, backed by the US and Britain, holds the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT or Army of the Pure) terrorist group responsible, following the interrogation of one of the gunmen who was apprehended.
“People jump on every tragedy. It is like ambulance-chasing,” said documentary film-maker Anand Patwardhan.
It was an attempt to exploit the misery of people, he added.
“Bollywood stops at nothing to make money,” said Mumbai housewife Badru Nissa. The city had barely cremated and buried its dead and Bollywood wanted to milk the tragedy for profit, she said.
Similar accusations of insensitivity and bad taste were levelled at former state chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh after he visited the attacked hotels with Bollywood producer Ram Gopal Varma, known for making action films.
Mr Deshmukh was forced to resign after the terrorist attack on the country’s financial capital.
Cinema critics said the attack on the city, in which hundreds of people were held hostage for more than two days, was “juicy” film material, especially as it centred around two of the country’s most popular hotels.
The gunmen also opened fire in the busy Chhatrapati Shivaji terminus and the fashionable Leopold Cafe populated by westerners.
Meanwhile, both the Taj and Oberoi hotels are reopening to the public on Sunday. However, the parts that were damaged in the attacks will remain closed as they could take months to repair.