Art & Culture Should Be An Open Avenue Between India & Pakistan: Javed Akhtar
Javed Akhtar responded to Indian content ban on Pakistani TV channels controversy, and said that art and culture should be an open avenue between the two countries.
Lyricist
and
poet
Javed
Akhtar
recently
attended
the
centenary
celebration
of
late
Poet
Kaifi
Azmi
and
took
the
opportunity
to
address
the
issue
of
art
being
caught
in
the
cross-fire
of
geopolitics.
Javed
Akhtar
responded
to
the
recent
controversy
sparked
by
the
Chief
Justice
of
Pakistan,
Mian
Saqib
Nisar,
who
said
that
the
Supreme
Court
would
not
allow
Indian
content
to
be
shown
on
Pakistani
TV
channels
as
it
damages
their
culture.
As
reported
by
Pinkvilla,
Javed
Akhtar
took
the
opportunity
on
Thursday
evening
to
respond
to
this
and
said,
"This
is
all
wrong,
there
shouldn't
be
any
such
talks
coming
from
here,
neither
from
there,
as
well."
"There
are
so
many
good
serials
which
come
from
there
(Pakistan)
and
they
should
be
able
to
telecast
here
but
they
don't,
and
our
good
programmes
should
be
able
to
telecast
there,
and
why
should
not
they
telecast
over
there
and
which
culture
is
getting
damaged?
Neither
theirs,
nor
our
culture
could
get
damaged," he
added.
He
is
not
happy
with
art
and
artists
being
caught
in
the
cross
fire
of
politics.
"These
are
just
talks
and
people
keep
on
jabbering
about
something
or
the
other,
someone
does
not
want
Ghulam
Ali
to
come
to
India,
and
people
from
Pakistan
keep
on
saying
something
else,
Lata
Mangeshkar
and
Asha
Bhosle
haven't
been
able
to
go
to
Pakistan," he
said.
Akhtar
sir
added,
"In
India
people
don't
want
Pakistani
artistes,
this
is
all
wrong.
As
far
as
art
and
culture
is
concerned,
whether
people
from
Pakistan
or
from
India,
every
avenue
and
path
should
be
open
for
it."
The
centenary
celebrations
of
late
poet
Kaifi
Azmi
was
organized
by
the
Mijwan
Welfare
Society.
The
informal
evening
was
graced
by
the
presence
of
Javed
Akhtar,
Shabana
Azmi,
Farhan
Akhtar,
Vidya
Balan,
Siddharth
Roy
Kapur,
Aditi
Rao
Hydari
and
many
others.