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Naseeruddin Shah comments on Rajesh Khanna again

10 Aug 2016

A few days after Naseeruddin Shah invited the ire of the Hindi film industry after calling India's first superstar Rajesh Khanna a poor actor and blaming him for bringing mediocrity to the Hindi film industry. Since then, many celebs including daughter Twinkle Khanna have spoken against Naseeruddin Shah over his harsh remarks.

On Tuesday evening, Naseeruddin Shah attended a masterclass organized by Neville Tuli of Osianama at the famous Liberty cinema in Mumbai. During the masterclass, Naseer talked about Rajesh Khanna, plagiarism in the industry and several other aspects. During the two-hour session, Naseeruddin was asked to about the mediocrity statement that led to an outrage and how he was criticized by the film industry members. To this, he said that people got upset with what he had said, however none of them had contradicted it. All they said was that Naseer should have some respect for the dead and should not have made such a statement. Naseer further added that his question was what respect did the film industry show towards Rajesh Khanna when he was alive. Just because thousands of people gathered outside his bungalow, did that make him a great actor? When pointed out that Rajesh Khanna had done movies like Anand and Aradhana which were highly appreciated, Naseeruddin Shah agreed to that statement. He said that those were only two of his best performances but he also put it out there that he never liked any of his other films apart from those two.

Lastly, when Naseeruddin Shah said that he did apologize to Rajesh Khanna's family because he understood their feelings but addressed the fact that he has not apologized to anybody else nor has he withdrawn his statement.