Last week, we saw many Bollywood stars right from Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Govinda, Sanjay Dutt, Rishi Kapoor, Sursh Oberoi, Vivek Oberoi, Jitendra, Rakesh Roshan, Juhi Chawla, Urmila Matondkar, Madhur Bhandarkar and many others like industrialists Rahul Bajaj and Venugopal Dhoot visiting Matoshri, the official residence of Balasaheb Thackeray to inquire about his health. But, not many Marathi artistes were seen visiting Matoshree, at least on television news. Few exceptions were Aadesh Bandekar and Vinay Apte.

It may be recalled that Mr. Thackeray has strongly supported Marathi cinema from time to time. Even in the recent past, Shiv Sena’s Chitrapat Wing along with MNS Film Unit; came in support of Marathi film ‘Bharatiya’ when the film was denied screens to accommodate maximum screens in favour of ‘Ek Tha Tiger’. The Shiv Sena Chitrapat Shakha had also fought for the rights of Marathi film and serial makers, when it came to offering concessions for shootings at Government owned Film City.

When we saw renowned personalities like Lata Mangeshkar, Amitabh Bachchan & Anil Kapoor openly praising about his qualities; not many from the Marathi film industry gave any such spontaneous reactions on Marathi news channels. Few exceptions were Vikram Gokhale and Vandana Gupte, who recalled their memorable moments with the popular leader.Actor Madhav Abhyankar had displayed his photograph with Balasaheb, recalling his recent meeting with him. Otherwise, there was not much response coming from top Marathi artistes.

Did the Marathi news channels ignore Marathi artistes to seek their reactions ; or the Marathi artistes themselves avoided to offer their reaction ? Even during his funeral at Shivaji Park, except for Nana Patekar, Nitin Chandrakant Desai, Mahesh Manjrekar, Shreyas Talpade, Ramesh Bhatkar and Vinay Yedekar , none other Marathi artistes could be noticed.

One could understand the presence of Aadesh Bandekar, as he is one of the secretaries of the Mumbai Unit of Shiv Sena; but many Marathi artistes, who otherwise visited Matoshri to seek his blessings and performed in the productions of his daughter in law; those who always invited his son Udhhav or nephew Raj to launch their films; were not seen to bid adieu to the popular leader, who always fought for the rights of Marathi people. At a time, when all his political opponents were present in large number for his funeral, the absence of leading artistes from Marathi Entertainment field was clearly noticed.

by Team Magzmumbai