Marathi actors face flak after tweeting 'Elections again?'

Mumbai: Sai Tamhankar, Sonalee Kulkarni and a few other Marathi actors faced flak on Friday when they simultaneously tweeted a message which seemed to be about the prospect of mid-term elections in Maharashtra. The actors were apparently promoting a film, but the Congress and NCP lashed out at them, questioning if this was being done at the behest a political party.

“Punha Nivadnuk?” (elections again?), Tamhankar, Kulkarni, Siddharth Jadhav and others tweeted. With no party being able to form government after last month’s polls, Maharashtra is currently under President’s rule. “The actors are promoting their upcoming film ‘Dhurala’, a political drama. Their tweet was not about the political situation. The look of the film is likely to be unveiled by early next week,” sources close to one of the actor told PTI.

But some Twitter users alleged that it was part of sponsored agenda. “Hope all this Marathi actors tweeted this on order of IT cell will get good payment. Otherwise they will go to @RajThackeray with complaint that Hindi actors getting more package for same job what we doing,” Twitter user Rahul Shendage said. Another Twitter user, Ravinder, said, “It’s amusing to see all these Marathi actors tweeting this to support propaganda. But when they are in need they will go to @RajThackeray to complain about screens and jobs for Marathi actors.” NCP leader Dhananjay Munde also lashed out at the actors.

“Some artists have initiated #electionagain Twitter trend. This is very unfortunate. They should apologise to the people. Artists should be mindful of the present political situation. This trend has confused the people,” Munde tweeted. Congress spokesperson Sachin Sawant demanded that police conduct an inquiry as to whether these actors had any links with the “BJP’s IT cell”. The actors should ensure they are not being used by the BJP for its “propaganda”, he said. State BJP spokespersons were not available for comments.