In Episode 21 of South Central, hosts Pooja Prasanna and Leena Reghunath discuss the Empuraan controversy and the Telangana government’s use of bulldozers and police force to clear ecologically rich land near Hyderabad Central University, alongside TNM’s Nandini Chandrashekar, lawyer Nikhil Narendran, and environmental journalist Bahar Dutt.
On the outrage over Empuraan, Nikhil says, “What is the problem? If you make a movie using the name of a known convict – Babu Bajrangi – why should the Hindu sentiment be hurt?”
On Mohanlal expressing regret over the film’s contents , Pooja remarks, “If anybody could withstand pressure, it's a star like Mohanlal. There was no call for ban, not even from the BJP. So what was the need to buckle?”
Leena adds, “People like that – soft Hindutva insiders – you don’t need to threaten them with violence. Even a letter saying his honorary position as Lt Colonel will be removed is enough to shake them.”
As the conversation moves to the Hyderabad University land row and the student protests against it, Bahar Dutt says, “We are the land of Chipko. Here we have students who have decided they want to save the forest and the biodiversity in their backyard. Yet we are not celebrating it. Instead, we are lathi-charging and arresting them.”
Nandini, who is also an alumna of HCU, observes, “There is no reason [for the government to take this land.] It is not befitting the Chief Minister to call students cunning jackals.”
All this and more—tune in.
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Audio Timecodes
00:00:00 - Intro
00:01:49 - Announcements
00:03:03 - Headlines
00:12:29 - Empuraan
00:41:34 - HCU Land Row
01:09:10 - Recommendations
References
RSS and BJP's quiet takeover of Auroville
Empuraan row: BJP, Organiser attack Prithviraj and Supriya, Mallika Sukumaran defends son
Mohanlal’s Empuraan note betrays zero will to stick to film’s ‘strong’ statement
’Don't destroy Malayalam industry like this’: Mohanlal on aftermath of Hema Committee report
‘Aren’t we all stakeholders?’ ask University of Hyderabad’s students, faculty
Explained: What is University of Hyderabad’s Kancha Gachibowli row about?
Inside the manosphere luring young Indian men and boys
Recommendations
Bahar Dutt
Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism
Nikhil Narendran
Nandini Chandrashekar
Leena Reghunath
Unmasking anti-Hindu and anti-Bharat narrative in ‘Empuraan’
How Mohanlal, Mammootty and the ‘national’ media failed the pioneering women of Mollywood
Pooja Prasanna
Speaking with Nature: The Origins of Indian Environmentalism
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Produced by Bhuvan Malik, edited by Jaseem Ali.