Union Minister invited B’Town for a CAA meeting, Ritesh Sidhwani & Bhushan Kumar were among those to attend the meet

CBFC chief
Prasoon Joshi, producers Ritesh Sidhwani and Bhushan Kumar, director Abhishek
Kapoor and actor Ranvir Shorey were among the Bollywood personalities that
attended a special meeting with Union minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday for a
discussion on the contentious Citizenship Act.

The meeting,
followed by dinner, was hosted at a suburban hotel in Mumbai amid heavy police
security and also saw the presence of BJP vice president Baijayant Jay Panda.
“It was a good meeting. It’s great to see the government reach out to
clear the air regarding the CAA,” Shorey told sources. “We were told
that more such meetings are being organised with people from different walks of
life,” he said. “I already had no issues with the CAA and I hope more
people are not misled about it affecting any Indian citizen.”

While the
meeting was held, a bunch of people staged a demonstration outside the hotel
premises against the amended Citizenship Act. They held up placards against the
government and Bollywood.

The invite
was also sent to other bigwigs of the industry, including Javed Akhtar, Farhan
Akhtar, Richa Chadha, Kabir Khan and Karan Johar, but none of them turned up
for the meeting, sources reported.

The incident
could be emblematic of the current split within the Bollywood fraternity, which
has largely remained apolitical throughout the years.  After the violence at JNU, director Bejoy
Nambiar questioned the silence of many in the film fraternity.

 “All you silent friends of mine watch
this !!! Watch this & then come and talk to me about how concerned you are
about the damage to public’ property. How is THIS OK ? How can we watch
students & teachers being brutally attacked like this and stay quiet
?” he asked.

Filmmaker Pooja Bhatt tweeted:

Filmmaker
Rahul Raiwal was among the first to arrive, followed by Anu Malik, Sidhwani,
filmmaker Kunal Kohli, actor Shailesh Lodha, singers Kailash Kher, Roop Kumar
Rathod and Shaan. Producer couple Anu and Shashi Ranjan were also present.

The text of
the invite for Sunday’s meeting read: “The agenda of the meeting will be
to facilitate a discussion on myths and realities pertaining to the Citizenship
Amendment Act.”

The invite,
however, was not extended to actor Swara Bhasker, filmmakers Anubhav Sinha and
Anurag Kashyap—all of whom have been vocal about their stand against the
controversial citizenship law. Protests broke out across the country after the
Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was cleared by Parliament and signed by President
Ram Nath Kovind into an Act.

Other
Bollywood celebrities who have expressed their disappointment over the
Citizenship Act are Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar, Shabana Azmi, Parineeti
Chopra, Richa Chadha and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub.