Country bigger than casting Fawad Khan in film: Srijit Mukherjee

 "I am fiercely national, I love my country. While I was having talks with Fawad, the Uri attack unfolded and the entire scenario changed. It's a moral, ethical stand, I do understand how a soldier's mother can feel," Srijit told at a chat show 'Conversations' here recently.

Fawad, whose first Indian film, Khoobsurat (2014), was only the second one of his career after Khuda Ke Liye (Pakistan), had got critical acclaim for his second Bollywood project Kapoor & Sons, bringing a lot of dignity to a gay character, but on the eve of  the release of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil after the Uri attack, there was a protest against the film and a clamour not to cast Pakistani actors any more with producer Karan Johar  pledging that he will not coast anyone across the border to secure the film's smooth running in the theatres.
  
"May be the shot was not fired by Fawad, but wasn't it his country from which the attackers came! Wasn't his country responsible for the ceasefire violation?", he told the chat show moderator journalist-elocutionist-actor Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee.

"It is a very complex zone but for me nation comes first. Incidentally my Whatsapp conversations with my friends in Pakistan have come to halt. If I keep talking to them, that may not be liked by the mother of a martyr," the maker of Rajkahini and its Hindi re-adaptation 'Begumjaan' said.

"In fact as a lover of cricket I had immensely liked Indo-Pak cricket match but have no regrets for not watching the same. Cricketing series may wait," said Srijit who is making his successful Bengali films Chotuskone and Hemlock Society in HIndi.

The live chat show, last of the series by Sujoy Prasad Chatterjee in the city, was held in Palm Restaurant.