Federation Is Banning All Pakistani Artists In India Says Ashoke Pandit

President of IFTDA, Ashoke Pandit says the protest from FWICE and 24 other association has been organized to support the government and ban Pakistani artists in India.

In the wake of the terror attack on CRPF personnel in Kashmir, 24 film associations including Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE), Indian Film & Television Directors' Association (IFTDA) and others organized a protest at Film City in Mumbai.

Talking about the protest, Ashoke Pandit said, “The incident which took place in Pulwama, everyone is sad, angry and in shock. There are hundreds of thousands of people, which come under the federation, and we have decided that there should be some reaction from the industry. We are hosting this protest with three main objectives in mind”

“First, we want to inform the government that entire work force of federation they support you unanimously and we will support whatever decision they take. Second, any artist or performer from Pakistan will not be allowed to work in India. We will request the producers and music companies, and all the departments that Pakistani artist must not be given any opportunity in our industry. Federation is certain that with the attack which took place recently, this is an attack on everyone, especially producers and the entire industry. If some producers hire Pakistani artist, we will boycott them, and they will not be allowed to work here” 

“Third, no Indian film will release in Pakistan. We would like to urge all the producers and distributors, till the time we don’t find a solution to this issue, Pakistan shouldn’t reap the benefits of Indian made films. I am certain distributors and producers will agree to abide by it, otherwise, the federation will take this matter very seriously”

Celebrities such as Gajendra Chauhan, Govind Namdev, Isha Koppikar, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Suresh Raina, Nia Sharma, Mukesh Chhabra and Salim Merchant along with many others were present at the event.

Talking about the fact that Pakistani artists recording the songs and performances overseas and releasing in India with the help of Music companies and producers, Ashok Pandit said, “To hell with this philosophy, for us, India and our armed forces are first and we will not any film release which has any Pakistani artist or song in it. No artist is bigger than country”

At least 40 CRPF personnel were killed in the attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pulwama district on Thursday. Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) has claimed responsibility for the attack.