Karan Johar finally broke his silence over the controversy surrounding his upcoming film 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil', that has been the subject of intense political debate after right wing groups called for imposing a ban on the film.
Through a video message, Johar expressed his grief over accusations against him for being "anti-national".
The Bollywood director implored that the political climate was completely different when he shot the film 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil'.
"There were efforts made by our government for peaceful relationship with our neighbouring country and I respected those endeavours and efforts then and I respect the sentiments today," said Karan Johar.
The director also appealed to not interrupt the screening of the film as fellow Indians had put a lot of effort in making of the film and it will not be fair to the people who worked in the making of the film.
"Over 300 Indians in my crew have put their blood, sweat and tears into my film and I don’t think it is fair to them to face any kind of turbulence from other fellow Indians," he said.
Karan’s video message comes after an association of Indian cinemas said earlier this month that they would not screen any film featuring Pakistani artists.
The ban by the India's Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association (COEA) applies to single screen cinemas in four states and is likely to affect the forthcoming release of movies “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”, “Dear Zindagi” and “Raees”.
Hindu nationalist groups piled pressure on the makers of “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” to drop Pakistani actor Fawad Khan from the romantic drama film.
The fringe but noisy right-wing group Maharashtra Navnirman Sena has threatened to stall the October 28 release of the movie.
"I have remained silent because of the deep sense of hurt and a deep sense of pain I felt, that a few people actually believe that I am anti-national," Johar said in his video message.
"For me my country comes first and nothing else matters to me but my country," he added.
The director condemned terrorism and also declared that he wouldn’t work [in future] with Pakistani talents given the current circumstances prevailing in the country.
"Going forward I would like to say that of course I will not engage with talent from the neighbouring country given the circumstance," he added.
India blames Pakistan for the raid on September 18 which saw the Indian army respond with alleged “surgical strikes”.
Following the militant attack the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association, which represents a number of Hindi film industry employees, passed a motion banning Pakistani artists until relations between New Delhi and Islamabad improve.
