Frenchman Francois Gautier, who reportedly is a journalist living in India, literally stirred up a hornet's nest after he tweeted about the role of Bollywood star Aamir Khan in an ambitious remake of the epic Mahabharata. While there have been no official confirmations, reports claim Mukesh Ambani is a stakeholder in the mammoth Rs 1,000 crore project and Aamir Khan has been tapped to play the role of Krishna.
"Why should @AamirKhan, a Muslim, play in most ancient & sacred of Hindu epics, the Mahabharata? Is @BJP4India Govt of @narendramodi going to be like the @INCIndia & just stand by in name of secularism??? Would Muslims allow a Hindu to play life of Mohamed?" he tweeted. The incident soon developed into a flurry of thrusts and ripostes on the social media platform.
A war of words broke out on Twitter, with trolls descending en masse to support Gautier's communal statement. Numerous celebrities came out against the statement, but none as forceful as Javed Akhtar. “You ignorant unfortunate imbecile, obviously you know nothing about our Indian traditions and culture. Do you know who were Ras Khan, Bullay Shah Waris Shah, Baba Farid Nazeer Akbarabadi, Nizir Banarasi, Bismillah khan. You are just a frog in the stinking well of communalism,” he wrote.
According to numerous reports, Gautier had written in a national publication's blog—that went viral—claiming seer Nostradamus had predicted the rise of Narendra Modi. However, a disclaimer that the article was a work of satire has since been appended.