Click to play videoMumabi: Raj thackeray might not welcome north Indians in Mumbai but Bollywood, the film industry that comes out with the maximum number of films in the world is a mix bag of people from different states and religion.
“No homes, no phone numbers, no car, no nothing, you just come with a bagful of dreams and a pressure cooker, and your survival kit, some clothes and few utensils and whole lot of dreams and then you come to find that there are whole lot of people like you,” actor Sushmita Mukherjee.
A National School of Drama, Delhi alumni, actress Sushmita Mukherjee came to tinsel town back in the 1980's. While she had to struggle as an actress, as a person she was soon at home in Mumbai. Just like singer Shilpa Rao who hails originally from Jamshedpur but now calls herself a Mumbaikar.
Even as the city burns due to separatist politics, Mumbai's film industry continues to symbolise secularism. Here different actors, technicians and producers all work towards one cause that is filmmaking.
In fact, the two leading superstars of Bollywood, Shahrukh Khan and Akshay Kumar are originally from Delhi, not Mumbai, just like other 'outsiders' Irfan Khan, Shiney Ahuja, Manoj Bajpayee, Jimmy Shergill, Priyanka Chopra, Konkona Sen Sharma and Neha Dhupia. And few like Aamir Khan have already spoken against the ongoing politics of separation.
“I have told myself, my friends and my fans that any politician who reminds us of our differences, our caste, and our languages and tells us that we are different, we should keep away from such politicians,” says Aamir Khan.
It doesn't seem that the separatist politics can change much in this industry. Like the relationship between superstar Amitabh Bachchan and his Marathi make up man Deepak Sawant.
While Big B has been branded as an "outsider" and has been much criticised for not doing much for the marathi manoos, his Marathi make-up man has been by his side for the last three decades.
Interestingly, Sawant recently turned producer with a Bhojpuri film, not a Marathi one. And now Bachchan is producing a Marathi film to be directed by Umesh Kulkarni. In tinsel town, it doesn't matter where you come from, all it matters is how far can you get from here.
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