Prominent Bollywood stars have rallied around film-maker Subhash Ghai’s film institute Whistling Woods International (WWI), which faces eviction from its location in suburban Mumbai next week.
The Maharashtra State Ministry for Cultural Affairs recently served a notice to WWI to vacate its premises and pay Rs 92 crore as rent.
The Bombay High Court in 2012 had ordered institute chairman Subhash Ghai to vacate the plot after a public interest litigation that contended that the WWI was allotted land “illegally” by then Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh.
Bollywood celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, Boman Irani, Shabana Azmi, Karan Johar and Shreyas Talpade extended support to Mr. Ghai by appealing to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan. Some of them took to Twitter to express their concerns. “pls do not dislodge an institute which has done what it promised and more!” Hrithik Roshan tweeted.
“At the end of the day #whistling woods is a temple of learning. The last thing one must bring down. An appeal for students & industry!” tweeted Boman Irani.
After the massive support on social media, Mr. Ghai is expected to personally approach Mr. Chavan. Mr. Ghai’s review petition in the High Court is due for hearing on Wednesday. WWI has till July 31 to vacate the 5.5 acre plot occupied by it.
The HC had also asked WWI to hand over the remaining 14.5 acres of empty land to the government. The cultural ministry has decided to set up in the WWI’s place Maharashtra’s first cultural university, Lalit Kala Vidyapeeth. The proposed university will have a school for film, drama, music, dance and radio and a department for folk art.
