Bangladeshis Protest Bollywood Film ‘Gunday’ for Misrepresenting Liberation War · Global Voices
Pantha Rahman Reza

A new Bollywood film, “Gunday“, has people outraged in Bangladesh against the movie's mischaracterizing their country's 1971 war for independence.
The film begins with a scene of the 1971 India-Pakistan war and ignores the events of 1971 that led to the creation of Bangladesh. It highlights only the 13 day long India-Pakistan war which occurred at the fag end, ignoring the essential element of the nine month long Bangladesh's struggle for liberation from Pakistan, in which an estimated three million people died.
Bangladeshis took to social media networks to express their anger and demand an apology from the production company behind the film, Yash Raj.
There have been offline protests as well. Several youth groups engaged in Street Protests in capital Dhaka. The government also officially protested.
Poster for the film “Gunday”. Image courtesy Wikimedia
Twitter user Abdullah Al Nadim wrote:
it was our liberation war. not Indo-Pak war. Indo-Pak war was just a part of our liberation war. #GundayHumiliatedHistoryOfBangladesh
— Abdullah Al Nadim (@i_am_nadim) February 19, 2014
Worldfriend4u questioned the film director's knowledge of history:
#GundayHumiliatedHistoryOfBangladesh your whole nation should be ashamed of you ignorant tyrant.you know nothing about history
— worldfriend4u (@worldfriend4u) February 20, 2014
Saima Selim tweeted:
#GundayHumiliatedHistoryOfBangladesh what idiots if you can't do basic research, don't bother being so called representatives @yrf
Zarin Tasnim Maliha complained:
This is totally shit !! Bollywood's recreated story about 1971 history -_- #Bullshit #GundayHumiliatedHistoryOfBangladesh
— Zarin Tasnim Malihaツ (@Zarin_Sparkles) February 21, 2014
Facebook user Sedative Hypnotics argued with documents the historic facts of Bangladesh's 1971 war of liberation which the film misrepresented:
৯০ হাজার পাকিস্তানী আর্মি ভারতীয় বাহিনীর কাছে আত্মসমর্পণ করে নি। করেছে বাংলাদেশ-ভারত যৌথবাহিনীর কাছে। এই কপি টা ভারতের প্রতিটা ঘরে ঘরে পৌছায় দেবার দাবি জানাই। প্রথমে ‘গুন্ডে’ মুভির পরিচালকের বাসায়।
90,000 Pakistani army prisoners did not surrender to the Indian army. They surrendered to the Bangladesh-Indian joint force. I demand that this copy of historic facts should reach every Indian house. Firstly, the documents should be sent to the “Gunday” director's home.
Mrityunjay Devrat, who is the director of the film “Children of War” based on the Bangladesh Liberation War has expressed his displeasure for the film in an interview with Bollywood Hungama, questioning the way the war was depicted:
If I am allowed to be honest, then I'd have to say that the makers of Gunday have been factually incorrect. I think it is hugely irresponsible and derogatory to use a sensitive subject such as the Bangladesh war for purely commercial purposes.
Yash Raj films has apologized in a statement on their blog for “any disrespect or hurt” that the film has caused Bangladeshis.