Why Thackerays have a love-hate relationship with Bollywood

If one has to summarise the love-hate relationship between the Thackerays and Bollywood, two separate incidents last week would say it all. 

While inaugurating a BMC-run hospital in suburban Mumbai, named after former Shiv Sena patriarch Bal Thackeray, party president Uddhav Thackeray narrated an anecdote on how Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan after his near-fatal accident on the sets of Coolie in Bengaluru was brought to Mumbai and rushed to Breach Candy Hospital in a Sena ambulance. Uddhav also quoted an old tweet by Bachchan recalling how there were no ambulances in those days which could ‘accommodate’ a person of Big B's height. Bachchan had tweeted about the incident after Bal Thackeray’s death in 2012.

The second incident, of course, is that of Shah Rukh Khan meeting Raj Thackeray at the latter's Dadar residence to ensure a smooth release of his upcoming movie, Raees.

Bollywood celebrities, time and again, have been forced to knock on the doors of Mumbai’s first political family either for favours or out of sheer "terror". However, it would be wrong to attribute the Thackerays' hold over the film industry only to their "terror tactics". The clout that they enjoy also has something to do with their creative side. While the Thackerays  may have held the industry or its celebs at ransom many times, it is also true that the family loves to be surrounded by Bollywood stars. The former Sena supremo never hid his love for warm beer and cigars. The beer-evenings on Matoshri rooftop with the likes of Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Dev Anand are a part of the sena family lore.

Before his initial days as a cartoonist for the Free Press Journal, Thackeray senior used to draw illustrations for Wadia Movietone. But the love-hate relationship between the film industry and the Thackerays started with the threatening of the owner of Kohinoor Theatre in central Mumbai. Dada Kondke, who later rose to become the biggest superstar of Marathi cinema ever, had booked the Kohinoor Theatre for the release of Songadya in November 1970. Kondke, who came to be known for his double entendre dialogues, was in for a rude shock when Kohinoor decided to screen Dev Anand’s Johny Mera Naam despite Kondke booking the theatre weeks ago.

An annoyed Kondke approached Bal Thackeray. The Shiv Sena, which was just a five-year-old party at the time, was high on its Marathi Manoos (sons-of-the-soil) agenda. The refusal to screen a Marathi movie came in handy for Thackeray to play his regional chauvinist card. The theatre owner was locked inside his own office and was forced to give the theatre to Kondke. While Songadya went on to become a silver jubilee hit (25 consecutive weeks in running), Kondke emerged as the biggest star of Marathi films and attained a rare feat of making it to the record books by delivering nine back-to-back silver jubilee films. But more than the record, Kondke became a true “bhakt” of Balasaheb and remained a loyal Shiv Sainik throughout his life. 

Similarly Bachchan too became a close family friend of the Thackerays after the former got embroiled in the Bofors scam in the 1980s. When there was a widespread call to boycott Big B’s movies in Mumbai theatres, Bachchan approached the Sena chief who was more than happy to bail out the superstar and ensured a smooth release for his forthcoming movies. Bachchan even went on to play the character of Subhash Nagre in Ram Gopal Verma’s Sarkar and Sarkar Raj, loosely based on Thackeray senior.

Bachchan is not the only star to seek favours from Matoshri. Congress leader and actor Sunil Dutt had to seek Thackeray’s intervention when his son and actor Sanjay Dutt was arrested under the stringent Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) Act, after the 1992 bomb blasts and riots.

Thackeray too utilised Bollywood to highlight his agenda. The former Sena supremo - who himself ran a newspaper - very well knew the potential of Bollywood as a headline-hogger. Mani Rathnam’s Bombay based on the Mumbai riots was 'censored' by Thackeray before its release. Raising an alarm over "polluting Indian culture", the Sena ransacked theatres showing Deepa Mehta’s Fire that depicted lesbian relationship. Till the fag end of his life, Bal Thackeray continued to terrorise the Hindi film industry. His last such act was perhaps the 'failed attack' against Shah Rukh Khan’s My name is Khan.

Known as the shadow of his uncle, nephew Raj, too, replicated the ways of his mentor. After parting ways from the Shiv Sena in 2006, Raj’s outfit Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had a sloppy beginning. It was only after Raj attacked Bachchan for his North Indian origins the party shot to fame. Raj attacked Big B for his statements calling himself as a “Chhora Ganga Kinarewala” (from the banks of Ganga). Taking it to the next level, he even threatened to stop the release of Drona, starring Abhishek Bachchan.

While his uncle threatened theatres, Raj terrorised multiplex owners for refusing to screen Marathi movies. His partymen would vandalise multiplexes for not heeding to their boss's dictate. From Wake up, Sid (for referring to Mumbai as Bombay) to the recently released Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Raees (for starring Pakistani actors Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan respectively), Raj has been unleashing his terror on Bollywood.

The Thackerays have always been fascinated by the glamour world. Many stars took great pride in associating themselves with Sena. The party had fielded Marathi stars like Ramesh Deo (Kolhapur Lok Sabha seat in 1996), Adesh Bandekar (Dadar Vidhan Sabha in 2009) on Sena tickets, while well-known actors such as Subodh Bhave, Sharad Ponkshe are active members of the party.

The MNS too did not lag behind in emulating its mentor party. While actor-director Mahesh Manjrekar contested on an MNS ticket from Mumbai in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Marathi stars Bharat Jadhav, Atul Parchure , Director Abhijit Panse are active party workers.  Like his uncle, Raj too shares friendly equations with Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Raju Hirani, Sajid Khan, Sajid Nadiadwala, among several others.

The Thackerays could never refrain from getting actively involved in the glamour world. From the king of pop, Michael Jackson, to superstar Rajinikanth, everyone paid visits to Matoshri during their Mumbai stay.

Thackeray Bahu, Smita who managed to become a power centre in the Thackeray houselhold for a brief time, rose to become a film producer herself. Smita produced films like Agnisakshi, Haseena Maan jayegi, Sandwich at al. Smita’s NGO Mukti foundation’s programmes saw the who’s who of Bollywood turning up for charity shows. Smita’s son Rahul, too, made his directorial debut recently. An ardent film buff, Raj has lent his voice for a Marathi Movie Jatra.

Be it the tyranny or sheer blessings of “Matoshri”, political observers believe that the fear of Thackerays has been such that no one wants to rub them the wrong way. One of the main reasons was also the fact that the Shiv Sena, and now MNS, has a strong presence in the form of trade union in film studios. 

A former minister from Congress had once put it in a simple way: “There is an emotive public opinion involved in issues taken up by the Sena. Be it the non-availability of theatres for Marathi films or the moral policing in the name of vulgarity and religion. We may personally agree or disagree, but as a government we can't take sides. So when someone like Balasaheb takes up the issue, it simplifies things for us. We neither antagonise public opinion nor invite wrath o film community by leaving it to the Sena to play moral police. For us it was like “saap bhi mar jaye aur lathi bhi na toote.”

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