Ploy to reduce Mumbai's importance: Oppn on Gujarat hosting Filmfare Awards event

MUMBAI: The Opposition on Wednesday alleged the scheduled hosting of the Filmfare Awards event in Gujarat instead of Mumbai, which is the traditional venue, is an attempt to reduce the importance of the state capital and move out the film industry.

The 69th edition of the awards gala will be held in Gandhinagar on January 27 and 28 in association with Gujarat tourism.

Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Assembly, Vijay Wadettiwar, said Bollywood and Mumbai share an unbreakable bond.

The decision to host the Filmfare awards outside Mumbai is "an attempt to reduce the importance of Mumbai and take the film industry out of the city", he alleged.

"This decision will hurt the businesses of cine workers," the Congress leader said in his post on X.

He alleged industries from Maharashtra were first taken out of Mumbai and now the "evil eye" of the Mahayuti government has fallen on Mumbai's film industry.

The Filmfare Awards are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in Bollywood and are one of the most famous film events in the country.

NCP (Sharad Pawar faction) national spokesperson Clyde Crasto said Gujarat is "stealing" everything from Mumbai and Maharashtra in the last couple of years.

"Big ticket projects were stolen in the past year and now the latest being the prestigious Bollywood film fraternity award, the Filmfare. Gujarat government's invitation to Filmfare to hold the awards in Gujarat is just another ploy to take away the prestige of Mumbai and Maharashtra," he alleged.

Crasto said it was "shameful" that the BJP-led Maharashtra government is silent on this issue, "like they have been when projects and financial prospects were being taken away from the state".

"Gujarat is our state from India and may it prosper always, but then why is the state and central government not thinking the same for Maharashtra which is also an Indian state?" he asked on X.