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Popular host and actor Shardul Pandit, who has acted in the hit show ‘Bandini’, is known as someone who has strong opinions on things. Recently, after an open letter requesting Pakistani actor Fawad Khan to go back to his country went viral online, Shardul took it upon himself to reply to it. This brought him both brickbats and praise from people on social media websites. Shardul even went ahead and did a video explaining why he wrote an open letter defending peace between India and Pakistan.
When asked, about it, he said,
“I have lived in UAE and interacted with Indians and Pakistanis living under one roof peacefully, bonding over Hindi music films and food. I realized that the hate is created by groups for vested interests, and actors are always soft targets as they are famous. While discussing with friends, I felt people are scared to speak up, which is why I wrote an open letter that was picked by many publications. Later, I decided to give out a message via the channel and the portal, as we are a Bollywood music channel and sometimes you have to use the power of your voice and reach for good things..”
Shardul disagrees with industry people who say that Pakistani artists need to be banned from the Indian entertainment industry. He explains,
“Will we want Priyanka Chopra to be banned tonight something happened between us and the USA? Most actors who say they want a ban, are unhappy that Pakistani actors get work and not them. That’s a lopsided and small way of thinking.”
And while Shardul did get a lot of hate mail, he is determined to stick to his words. He shares,
“I have received so many hate messages; from abusing my parents to death threats, yet the compliments are pouring in from right quarters. Several online publications have gone ahead and applauded the effort. Now even people are fighting on YouTube and Facebook for me. People are sharing it all over social media. I have to thank my director who scripted it and developed it with me.”
People may also see this as a sign of Shardul raking up a controversy just to gain publicity and enter Bigg Boss. But Shardul feels otherwise. He says,
“Many people are asking me this now, but I never thought of it. I want to clarify one thing — I did not write or make this video to create controversy or to land in Big Boss. If I wanted it, I would have faked an affair like many others. But this was important. Someone needed to speak up. A yes or no will be decided as and when the time comes.”
Controversy or not, we’re sure you will make an interesting contestant on Bigg Boss, Shardul!
