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Reuters
BOMBAY:
The star-studded "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke" was
set to be released in theatres across the country on Friday
despite threats by Hindutva lobby to disrupt screenings.
Heavy
advance bookings for "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke"
(Stealthily, Secretly) meant there were full houses across
Bombay, the centre of India's glamorous Bollywood film industry.
"All
the shows are full till Tuesday and the night shows have been
booked in advance till next Friday," an official at the
upmarket Eros Theatre in South Bombay told Reuters.
The film's
release, originally scheduled for December, was delayed following
the arrest of producer Nazim Rizvi and seizure of the film
by police on suspicion it was funded by underworld gangsters.
The Vishwa
Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council) and Bajrang Dal have
called for a boycott of the "Chori Chori Chupke Chupke".
They allege
watching the movie would amount to supporting Pakistan's Inter
Services Intelligence because India's gangland bosses enjoy
support from Islamabad's secret service. "Our activists
will ask the theatre manager not to screen the film,"
Vishwa Hindu Parishad activist Jagdish Khare told Reuters,
adding that a group of his colleagues had gone to a theatre
screening the film in a Bombay suburb.
In New
Delhi a small group of activists from the youth wing of the
Hindu hardline party Shiv Sena demonstrated outside a theatre,
but they were arrested by police within minutes.
POLICE
PROTECTION
The
Eros Theatre said it was ready for trouble. "We got threatening
calls warning us not to screen the film. We are getting police
protection," the official said. "Police will sit
inside the theatre during the show for the next three days."
Another major theatre posting a full-house sign at its booking
counter, the Minerva in central Bombay, is also screening
the film with police protection even though it has not received
any threats.
"Those
who have seen the film have said it is very good," said
Pravesh Mehra, managing director of the Minerva. "Chori
Chori Chupke Chupke" sunk deep into controversy two months
ago when its high-profile financier, wealthy diamond merchant
Bharat Shah, was arrested on allegations of links with the
underworld. Shah and Rizvi were detained under provisions
of a special act dealing with organised crime. Both deny any
wrongdoing. Shah has repeatedly denied the charges and says
he personally invested over 120 million rupees ($2.5 million)
to make the film.
The threats
of disruption appeared to have been no deterrent for movie-lovers
as they flocked to watch hearthrob Salman Khan and heroines
Rani Mukherji and Preity Zinta star in a love triangle tale.
"We have come to see Salman Khan. We are not bothered
if underworld money has been used or anything else,"
said college student Rachna Vaswani as she tried desperately
to buy a ticket at Eros. Bombay churns out an average of one
Hindi film every two days, most of them melodramas with song-and-dance
routines.
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