Well-known Pakistani actor Adnan Siddiqui, who made his Bollywood debut with the 2017 film Mom, starring the late Sridevi in the lead role, recently opened up about how his Bollywood ambition came to an end when the Indian film industry banned Pakistani artists from working in India in the wake of the Uri attacks and why he feels Pakistani audiences have higher tolerance than Indians.
Talking to Indian Express, Siddiqui said, “Art has no boundaries, but artistes have a certain boundary, which shouldn’t be there. There should be healthy cultural exchange. I believe that the kind of tolerance–pardon me for being so blunt–but our tolerance, in comparison to Indian audience is much higher.”
“We accept Indian artistes, Indian cricketers, we accept everything good about India. But when this thing goes across the border, it becomes very political. I don’t know why. I remember when I was filming Mom, it was kept very hush-hush, because the whole Fawad Khan controversy had happened. Boney was saying that we can’t do interviews, public appearances. This shouldn’t be happening; the responsibility should be taken by both the governments and the political parties, to at least be a little lenient when there is art involved somewhere,” he added.
When asked about the time the controversy sparked, and Pakistani artists such as Siddiqui, Fawad Khan, and Mahira Khan were not allowed to work in India, he said, “I was thinking to have my career over there, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s manager was in touch with me, he was offering me some work over there and I was looking at those also, but then it didn’t happen. No regrets, really.”
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