‘Lonely loudspeaker on a pole’

In an open letter, Anubhav Sinha slams trolls

Anubhav Sinha today hit out at trolls who have accused the filmmaker of spreading bias and propaganda through his new film, Mulk, likening the abusers on social media to “a lonely loudspeaker on a pole”. The film, which stars Rishi Kapoor and Taapsee Pannu in key roles, centres around a Muslim family caught in a terror plot.

In a lengthy letter on Twitter, Sinha today blasted the “faceless” and “nameless” trolls for their ignorance and subservience, who work for meagre amounts to act as their “masters” voice.

“People you troll are people who are doing well for themselves, they have a life and you know the best part? They have a voice that doesn’t go down

well with your masters. You are just a lonely loudspeaker on a pole. Come rain, come sunshine nothing changes for you.

Nothing you keep blaring out hate on their behalf. Personally, I feel pity for you,” the director wrote.

Sinha said the film has not been funded by the mafia or by any political party. “Mulk... No, it is not funded by Dawood Ibrahim. You can ask him. Not even Congress. You can ask Rahul (Gandhi). Not even the RSS. You can check with Mohan Bhagwat ji. It is funded by Deepak Mukut and his father Kamal Mukut, a veteran in this business.”

The director said Mulk is not about “Hindus or Muslims” as the film has been accused of. “It (film) is not doing what you think it is doing. It is not about your masters... It is about you and it is about me and mostly it is about us,” he said.

Sinha said his every post on social media does not necessarily have to do with the film promotion. “We are spending crores of rupees promoting the film we spent even more making it. these tweets are just a very very minor part of the campaign and like I said, we do have a life...” he said. “We do read your posts. We smile. Feel bad for you. Sometimes you do end up hurting us but mostly not because we know it is not your voice,” he added.