Why do people curb art, asks Aditi Rao Hydari

Actor Aditi Rao Hydari (left) doesn’t believe in mincing words and takes a stand for something she feels strongly about, especially when it comes to the film industry. The actor has condemned the recent attack on Bollywood filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali by activists of a Rajput organisation on the sets of his next film. Bhansali was accused of distorting the facts in the film.

Aditi says, “A filmmaker is a storyteller and you cannot curb somebody’s desire to tell a story. That’s not fair. We should be proud of filmmakers such as Sanjay sir and Mani (Ratnam) sir and give them chance to make films because they create cinematic history,” says Aditi, who is part of Bhansali’s next project.

“I’ve been brought up in an environment, where we were given artistic freedom and scope for speaking your mind. I find it difficult to understand the reason behind such kind of violence,” she adds.

The 30-year-old actor believes that the solution to fight a violent mind is to stand together. “More people should come together, and not let bullies harm us. This way, nothing can come in our way of making good films. There is so much power in believing in the other person’s vision and standing by him or her. If we do that, hopefully we will stop becoming soft targets,” says Aditi.

She adds that artists, be it in Bollywood or any other industry, would never resort to violence to take revenge. “Ultimately, we are artists and we don’t want to scream and shout at anybody. We also want love. We are creating something [films] with so much passion and we don’t want to be subjected to violence,” she says.

A filmmaker is a storyteller and you cannot curb somebody’s desire to tell a story. That’s not fair ADITI RAO HYDARI, ACTOR

PHOTO: YOGEN SHAH