Last week, Hina Khan made her debut at the Cannes Film Festival. While celebrities such as Priyanka Chopra and Sonam Kapoor celebrated the actress’ achievements, there was someone who had a problematic reaction. Jitesh Pillai, the editor of a national entertainment magazine decided to post a picture of Hina Khan at Cannes with the caption, “Cannes has suddenly become Chandivali studios kya?”
Source: Instagram
Hina Khan, who was at Cannes to unveil the first look of her debut film, Lines, tweeted a response and a lot of her friends and co-actors from the Television Industry stood strong in support. The actress tweeted saying, “I was persistent, I m constant n I will b efficient again n again again. Don’t know where I belong, don’t know if I have to, as d Place don’t define me! Bcause as always I will work my a** off n I will make my own PLACE. My promise,a proud outsider from my Chandiwali studios.”
Actors like Nakuul Mehta, Karanvir Bohra and Nia Sharma called out Jitesh Pillai and even tweeted against his Instagram story. Now, Nakuul Mehta has gone a step further and released an open letter on his Instagram account, addressed to Jitesh Pillai.
Source: Instagram
Here is an excerpt from the Ishqbaaz actor’s letter, “Dear Jitesh, Thank you for representing an elitist, almost archaic thought process which inadvertently, to your credit ended up sparking a dialogue that was held back for far too long within my community. No, Chandivali is not the problem. Far from it. If Cannesis the home of movies, then Chandivali Studios is also a home for thousands and thousands of hardworking artists and technicians in Mumbai both from television and the film industry. It’s where dreams are sown, baby steps are taken towards greater glory, higher artistic ambitions. For a lot of us, Chandivali is still our Cannes and we are absolutely proud of it.”
He also mentioned that maybe this was the push they needed, “The silver lining of that uncalled for remark you made is that for the first time a lot of us collectively stood up and made out voices heard. It hit home. You got a lot of us engaging in a dialogue and coming out in support of a colleague who on her own merit has blazed new trails. Thank you, if for nothing else but for shaking our collective conscience to wake up and stand up for the respect our work demands.”
Read the full letter here:
Source: Instagram
Source: Instagram
Source: Instagram
After Jitesh Pillai’s Insta story went viral and the responses starting flowing in, Jitesh offered an apology on his Instagram account and said that he had spent years in the studios he had made fun of.
Source: Instagram
Mehta’s strongly worded letter to Jitesh Pillai restarted the conversation about the controversy.
We wonder, has Pillai’s apology been accepted by Hina Khan?
Featured Image: Instagram
POPxo is now available in six languages: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Marathi and Bangla.
Love all things colourful and cute? Take it up a POP with POPxo Shop‘s collection of super fun mugs, phone covers, cushions, laptop sleeves and more!
