Amid #BoycottBanaras calls, politico Zameer Ahmed Khan prepares for son Zaid’s film launch with event in Bengaluru

If you thought that only Hindi films were part of the #boycott social media trend, well, you’ve got that one wrong. The latest that’s got netizens in a tizzy is debutant Zaid Khan’s launchpad, Banaras. The Jayathirtha Jayanna directorial is all set to hit theatres shortly after Deepavali on November 4 as a pan-India release with versions in Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil and Hindi. Banaras is a love story that explores relationships against the backdrop of the ghats in Kashi. So, what’s got netizens so riled up about the film?

Well, it is not exactly a problem with the film per se. Twitterati is up in arms, at least online, over the fact that this is MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan’s son’s launchpad. The boycott call has a more religious angle to it, with Zameer’s involvement in not allowing Ganesha Chaturthi festivitities at the Eidgah maidan in Chamarajpet, Bengaluru. Most of the posts so far have been about Zameer’s supposed anti-Hindu stance and that the film supposedly promotes ‘love jihad’.

Yet amid all of this, the team has been going ahead unperturbed with their promotional plans. So far, only a few songs from the film have made it to the public realm and now, we hear, that a massive trailer launch/pre-release event is being planned to be held in Bengaluru on September 26, for which the team is bringing in members of the media from across the country. The last time that happened was for the trailer launch of KGF: Chapter 2, which is an indication of the scale on which the Banaras event is being planned.

Produced by Tilakraj Ballal under the banner of NK Productions, Banaras also stars Sonal Monteiro, Sujay Shastry, Devaraj, Achyuth Kumar, Sapna Raj and Barkath Ali, among others. With Banaras, Zaid joins the long list of politician sons in Kannada cinema, which includes the likes of Nikhil Kumar (HD Kumaraswamy), Anup Revanna (HM Revanna), Kireeti (G Janardhan Reddy), Sachin (Cheluvarayaswamy), Manoj (Kumaraswamy), among others.