Did Shiv Sena thwart the music launch of Ghulam Ali's Bolly flick?
Mystery surrounds Ghulam Ali's suddenly announced Bollywood debut film Ghar Wapsi, as conflicting reports suggest different reasons for the abrupt cancellation of the film's music launch, which was scheduled to be held at The Club in Andheri, Mumbai on Friday, January 29.
According to Indian Express, the singer was due to fly into India today to attend the music launch, but has cancelled his visit after Shiv Sena forced owners of The Club to cancel the event's booking.
Indian Express also reported that an official at The Club said there was no such booking in the first place, while the director Suhaib Ilyasi maintains that he had personally gone to the venue to make the booking. Ilyasi added that Ghulam Ali has been saddened by this latest development.
The Hindustan Times, however, quotes a source close to Ghulam Ali as saying that the ghazal singer had no plans to visit India any time soon. The source, who is named as Randhir Roy, said: “No formal invitation to attend the music launch of the film has been extended to Khan saab. He had returned to Pakistan on Friday, and has no schedule to visit India anytime soon. I don’t know how these rumours have started doing the rounds. In fact, someone from the NCPA has also claimed that Khan saab will perform in Mumbai soon, but that’s not true.”
So which version is true? The Shiv Sena is notorious for opposing the performance of Pakistani artistes in India, and has protested against Ghulam Ali's concerts in Mumbai and Pune last year. However, the director Ilyasi had himself earlier said that the event is on standby until proper protection for Ghulam Ali has been guaranteed by the Maharashtra government. Given the tentative nature of the event, could it be the director forgot to send an official invite to his chief guest?
In an earlier interview with NDTV, Ilyasi appeared confident that the event will be hiccup-free:
"I have been assured that nothing will happen. I'm sure that everything will be alright. I feel that lot of positivity will spread across Mumbai post this event. As far as I know, the prime ministers of both India and Pakistan are big fans of Ghulam Ali."