Bollywood director Kabir Khan is known for his works such as Ek Tha Tiger, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, and his most recent is the upcoming film ’83!
In a recent interview, Khan spoke about his Bollywood journey and also stated a few opinions.
Going into the history of India, Kabir shared his opinions on the Mughals and expresses his distress over the demonizing of the Mughals. “I find it I find it hugely problematic and disturbing. What really makes me upset for reason is because it’s being just done to go with the popular narrative. Unfortunately! I can understand when a filmmaker has researched something, and a filmmaker wants to make a point there. Of course, there can be different viewpoints. I’m saying if you want to demonize the Mughals, please base it on some research and do it and make us understand why, right? Why they were the villains that you think they were. Because if you do some research, if you read history, it’s very tough to understand why they were, why they have to be villainized,” he says.
Continuing, Kabir also states how he thinks they were one of the nation builders! “I think they were one of the original nation builders, and to just to write them off and just pass off some line saying ‘No, no, no, no they massacred people, they converted people. They did this. They did that. But what are you basing it on? Please point out the historical evidence, please have an open debate.”
The director spoke about films that are based on topics that demonize the Mughals. Kabir continued, “Just don’t go with a narrative that you think will be popular. It’s the easiest thing today, right? Just demonizing the Mughals and various other Muslim rulers that India had at different points in the history, trying to fit them into preconceived sort of stereotypes. It is distressing, I cannot respect those films. Unfortunately, that’s my personal opinion. Of course, I can’t speak for the larger audiences. But I definitely get upset by those kind of portrayals.”