Explained: Why filmmaker Shonali Bose chooses not to stand for national anthem

This time, Bose was called disgusting and unpatriotic when she didn’t stand up when the national anthem was played before the movie.

Responding to the backlash, Shonali Bose defended herself and explained the meaning of patriotism and national chauvinism in a video posted on her official Instagram handle.

“I won’t stand because theatre is not an inappropriate place to play the national anthem when people have come to be entertained and watch a movie. It’s wrong to force nationalism down your throat,” the filmmaker said in the video.

According to her, patriotism means being able to speak your mind and have a conscience along with raising important questions about the well-being of the country which means the well-being of the people.

“I was called disgusting a couple nights ago in Juhu PVR theater. For being unpatriotic. This is my answer,” Bose captioned the video. 

Take a look at Shonali Bose’s response below,

In the video, Bose was heard saying, “I love the national anthem I am not going to stand in a movie theatre and sing the national anthem when you just finished watching some ad… some sanitary napkin ad with Akshay Kumar and the next thing in the national anthem.”

“Is that respectful to the national anthem. Do you have the brain to think when you are calling someone disgusting that they are not standing?”

The filmmaker also quoted popular lines by Rabindranath Tagore “Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action, into that heaven of freedom, my father, let my country awake.”

“Patriotism is having the courage for your first film to be a film about the genocide and ending that film about another genocide … taking on the two big governments and political parties Congress and BJP. That is patriotism,” she further added.