Saif Ali Khan upset with Mayawati government

Till now it was filmmaker Prakash Jha and actor Amitabh Bachchan, who were upset with the Mayawati Government for barring the Aarakshan team from entering the state, and now it is none other than actor Saif Ali Khan who expressed that it pains to hear that one is not welcome in his or her own country.

“It"s such a shame that political parties are allowed to dictate such terms. Whatever is happening to us at the moment is certainly not desirable," says Saif. Filmmaker Jha and Mr. Bachchan was denied permission to hold a seminar on job reservation at the Lucknow University. Later, when the makers hired the Indira Gandhi auditorium, permission was yet again denied by the Lucknow development Authority.

Jha after the incident left a message with a close associate of CM Mayawati saying that he is willing to arrange a special screening of Aarakshan for her but the CM has not responded to it. Reports also suggests that Uttar Pradesh government is planning to put a ban on the film's release. Chhote Nawab views that if the Censor Board has passed the film without any cuts, the political parties should respect the decision.

“It is being unnecessarily made into an issue when it is not such an issue. How can you decide what is there in the film even before you have seen the film? We knew that we were working on a controversial subject, but we didn"t know that we would get this kind of treatment from a certain section of people," adds Saif.

The actor however hopes that political parties will respect the sentiments and not ruin an art in this manner. He says that it is just a film and not a political controversy. He concludes that he is shocked of the happening circulating the film Aarakshan.