NCP MP Amol Kolhe seeks huge criticism for playing Nathuram Godse’s role in a movie

|HT|

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Member of Parliament Amol Kolhe has drawn flak for playing Nathuram Godse’s role in a movie titled Why I killed Gandhi. Maharashtra minister Jitendra Awhad, who is also an NCP leader, said the movie glorifies Godse and Kolhe should not have played the role. “One cannot support the murder of Mahatma Gandhi under the garb of being an actor,” Awhad said.

Kolhe is a popular face in Maharashtra who has appeared in TV series called Raja Shiv Chhatrapati. In 2019, he joined NCP and got elected to Lok Sabha from the Shirur constituency.

On Thursday, Kolhe issued a clarification saying the film is being released now but was shot in 2017 when he was not in politics. He urged people to differentiate between reel life and real life.

“Sometimes, one suddenly comes across roles where you do not agree with the ideology but they challenge you as an artist. Nathuram Godse’s role was one such. On a personal level, I am not a votary of Gandhi’s assassination or glorification of Nathuram, but I have tried to do justice with the role that came to me. As an artist, one must respect the freedom of expression and as a person, the freedom of thought! I hope that people look at this work with an open mind,” Kolhe posted on Facebook. The Hindi movie is set to release on January 30. The controversy over it started after its 2.20-minute trailer was released on social media.

(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)