Gram panchayat member says film director Hemanth Hegde looking for cheap publicity
Gram panchayat member says film director Hemanth Hegde looking for cheap publicity
Suresh Bantwadi says he didn't call Charlie Chaplin a Christian and the whole issue was just a publicity stunt.
"The word Christian never came from my mouth. I did object to the statue at the spot, but it was never because Chaplin was a Christian," said Suresh Bantwadi, a gram panchayat member of Ottinene village, where the statue was to come up.
He admits, however, to having called Chaplin a foreigner. "I asked why only Charlie Chaplin who was a foreigner. They could even put up Tenali Rama or Swami Vivekananda's statue. I said, you will make the film and leave, we have to take care of the beach," he said.
Bantwadi accuses the filmmaker of giving the issue a communal colour to gain publicity. "He conducted a press conference in Mangalore and now he is all over the media and people know his film," he said.
Bantwadi also denies being a member of any Hindu outfit.
"Film director Hemanth Hegde has associated me with Hindu outfits. But I am not a member of any outfit be it the Hindu Jagran Vedike, Sri Ram Sene or RSS. I admit I won the gram panchayat elections on a BJP ticket, but that does not mean I am with the Hindu outfits. I have won elections with the help of Christian voters. In our village, all religions live peacefully and I have nothing against Christians," he said.
Bantwadi said he had objected to the statue for other reasons.
"The statue is right at the entrance of the temple. A 67-foot statue at the entrance of the temple would not have been feasible. So we objected. We also asked the filmmakers to erect the statue on some other place on the same beach," he said.
The filmmakers did not even have adequate permission to erect a permanent statue.
"He showed us a letter from the information department saying they have the permission to erect a temporary shed for just three months from March 3 to June 6. Nowhere did it say that he could put up a statue permanently. He had no permission from the deputy commissioner too. The land belongs to the Muzrai department and they had not sought their permission also," he said.
On director Hegde's claim that he had obtained permission from the gram panchayat president, Bantwadi said: "For the past one-and-a-half months, no panchayat meeting was held and no permission can be given by the president alone," he said.
Sculptor says...Film director Hemanth Hegde and art director and sculptor Chethan Mundali insisted that Suresh Bantwadi had called Chaplin a Christian.
When MiD DAY asked Mundali about the offer of another part of the beach, he said, "I have to see the wind direction. They did ask us to erect the statue on some other part but I cannot erect it on sand since it will sink and there are other things which have to be seen before putting up a 67 feet statue," he said.
The statue will be made of iron and concrete. Apart from Mundali, 25 of his classmates from Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts (CAVA) will also chip in. The statue's base will be 5 feet and the height 62 feet, making the entire structureu00a0 67 feet.
