Cinema is an artistic expression and India does not restrict it, government sources said on Tuesday as Salman Khan\u2019s \u201cBattle of Galwan\u201d, based on the 2020 clash between Indian and Chinese troops in the Galwan Valley, found itself in the news after its 1.12-minute teaser.<\/p>\n
The big budget drama has \u2014 expectedly \u2014 drawn criticism from China\u2019s Global Times which claimed the movie to be a cinematic exaggeration and said it distorted facts.<\/p>\n
The film, directed by Apoorva Lakhia, has Salman playing the role of Bikkumalla Santosh Babu, who laid down his life along with 19 other soldiers of the 16 Bihar Regiment in the 2020 battle while defending Indian territory. He was posthumously given India\u2019s second-highest wartime gallantry award, the Maha Vir Chakra.<\/p>\n
A teaser of the film was released on Salman\u2019s 60th birthday on Saturday. It shows the actor\u2019s Army officer and group of Indian soldiers ready to charge at the PLA army members running towards them with the song \u201cMera Bharat Desh Mahaan Hai\u201d playing in the backdrop.<\/p>\n
The teaser, which begins with a voice over by Salman\u2019s character saying, \u201cSoldiers, remember, if you get hurt, treat it like a medal and if you see death, salute it,\u201d has already got over 60 million views across different social media platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cIndia has a tradition of cinematic expression. A movie titled \u2018Haqeeqat\u2019 was made in 1964 and the theme was the India-China war of 1962. Another film \u2018120 Bahadur\u2019 was made recently on the legendary battle of Rezang La. Cinemas are an artistic expression and India does not restrict it,\u201d a government source said.<\/p>\n
Several Indian media outlets reported on the teaser and the criticism it drew from the Chinese media.<\/p>\n
The Global Times termed the movie propaganda and quoted a \u201cChinese expert\u201d and several Weibo (Chinese social media) accounts to find fault with different aspects of the short teaser.<\/p>\n
\u201cA Chinese expert said on Monday that Bollywood films at most provide an entertainment-driven, emotionally charged portrayal, but no amount of cinematic exaggeration can rewrite the history or shake the PLA\u2019s determination to defend China\u2019s sovereign territory,\u201d the newspaper claimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe film has also drawn other controversies online, with users pointing to issues such as the appearance and costumes of extras, actors\u2019 hairstyles that do not match their military roles or the extreme cold implied in the storyline, and, most importantly, a portrayal of events that does not align with the facts,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Produced by Salman Khan and his mother Salma Khan, \u201cBattle of Galwan\u201d releases on April 17.<\/p>\n
The military standoff in eastern Ladakh began in May 2020. Clashes at the Galwan Valley in June that year resulted in a severe strain in ties between India and China. Twenty Indian Army personnel laid down their lives in the Galwan Valley clashes on June 15, 2020.<\/p>\n
In February 2021, China officially acknowledged that five Chinese military officers and soldiers were killed in the clashes though it is widely believed that the death toll on the Chinese side was much higher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cinema is an artistic expression and India does not restrict it, government sources said on Tuesday as Salman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":380982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,134,205027],"class_list":["post-380981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-salman-khans-battle-of-galwan-gets-flak-from-chinese-media-indian-govt-says-cinemas-artistic-expression"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}