Karan Johar says sorry to Raj Thackeray

India is perhaps the only country in the world where the name of a city can incite riots and misgivings. Don’t be surprised. This has happened in amchi Mumbai and the person who’s on the receiving end is none other than poor Karan Johar. Apparently, Mumbaikars are not very happy with his use of the name ‘Bombay‘ instead of the more marathi ‘Mumbai’ in Wake Up Sid.

The movie that has just released and has been very well received is now centred in controversies as the members of the Raj Thackeray-led political party MNS disrupted its screening.

Poor Karan Johar just can’t catch a break. His first movie of the year, one that he’s been really banking on, may now face trouble in Maharashtra. Especially now since other political parties have seen this as a chance to jump in and gain political mileage. Even after KJo has actually gone to Raj Thackeray, apologizing for the genuine mistake, more politicians are coming out and asking Karan to apologize to the entire state and not just one person.

Poor Karan. I simply cannot sympathize with him more. What started off as an honest artistic liberty has now become a major controversy and even as people debate about whether it was alright for Karan to apologise to a few organized hoodlums, the fact of the situation is that Wake Up Sid will never remain the same.

In fact, it will now begin with a humble apology from the makers of the film, stating that it was wrong to use the term Bombay, when the city is clearly called Mumbai. What surprises me most is that KJo kneeled in front of political tyranny just to save face and to maintain the box office collections from Maharashtra.

KJo may be able to make money from the movie after posting his apology, but I don’t think people will be able to forgive him for making a common hoodlum bigger than art. I know at least I won’t.