On Thursday, actor Shah Rukh Khan along with Amitabh Bachchan inaugurated the 28th Kolkata International Film Festival. While addressing the audience, amidst the Pathaan ban row mentioned in his speech about the negative effects of social media and how it offers an escalating negative effect in the society. People are condemning the song Besharam Rang from the movie which showcases the green and saffron waves of SRK and Deepika Padukone.
At KIFF 2022, the actor indirectly addressed the criticisms showered by people for Pathaan, SRK said, “Cinema and advent of articulation through social media platforms have now become the foremost expression of human emotions and experience. The collective narrative of our times is shaped by social media and contrary to the belief that the spread of social media will affect the cinema negatively, I believe cinema has an even more important role to play now.”
The actor particularly mentioned that social media is “driven” by “narrowness of views” and further added, “I read somewhere negativity increases social media consumption and thereby increases its commercial value as well. Such pursuits enclose the collective narrative, making it divisive and destructive.”
SRK identified cinema as the most important medium to communicate, and said, “Cinema exposes the vulnerability of human nature by telling stories in their simplest form, as they are lived. It allows us to know each other better. In a way, it is best placed to sustain a collective counter-narrative that speaks to the larger nature of humankind, a narrative that brings to the fore that humanity has an immense capacity for compassion, unity and brotherhood.”
The actor wrapped up by saying that the urgent need of the hour is to build a better world for the future to come. “Meeting the world at the world of cinema is the call of the day. Not just meeting, but also using the power of cinema as a vehicle for people of different cultures, colours, castes and religions to better understand each other. Through endeavours like KIFF, the endeavour is to build new platforms to break existing prejudices. Let’s come together and build a better world for our future generation through the medium of cinema,” the actor said.
