Veteran lyricist Javed Akhtar has got into a Twitter spat with filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, asking the latter to visit a psychiatrist.
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Kapur on Saturday tweeted that he still feels like a “refugee” and how some “intellectuals” made him feel “insignificant”.
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“Started life as refugee of Partition. Parents gave everything to make a life for kids. Was always in fear of ‘intellectuals’. They made me feel insignificant. Small,” read the tweet.
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However, he added that he was suddenly “embraced” but still fears those “intellectuals”,” the ‘Mr India’ director wrote.
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But Kapur’s tweet did not go down well with Akhtar. He asked Shekhar to stop his “melodrama”.
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“What do you mean by still a refugee? Does it mean that you feel like an outsider and not an Indian and you don’t feel that this is your motherland? If in India you are still a refugee where will you not feel like a refugee? In Pakistan? Cut this melodrama, you poor rich but lonely guy,” Akhtar said.
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“You introduce yourself as neither prejudiced by the past nor afraid of the future living in this moment and in the same breath you say you are a refugee of partition and still a refugee. One doesn’t need a magnifying glass to see the contradiction,” he added.
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Akhtar did not stop slamming Shekhar here. He further said: “Who are these intellectuals who embraced you and you found that embrace like a snake’s bite? Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopal Krishna, Ramchandra Guha? Really? Shekhar saheb you are not well. You need help. Come on, there is no shame in meeting a good psychiatrist.”
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Clarifying his tweet, Kapur shared what he actually meant by refugee.
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“No. It means once you are a refugee, you feel [like] a gypsy,” Shekhar said.
###Panaji : Film Director Shekhar Kapur during the Digital Space Panel Discussion at 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI-2017), in Panaji, Goa on November 25, 2017. (Photo: IANS)
Image Credit: IANS###