JOIN USUttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath to woo Bollywood stars for investments
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will arrive in Mumbai on Wednesday to woo Bollywood bigwigs and industrialists to set up shop in his state, with his impending visit stirring the Uddhav Thackeray government into firing salvos.
The firebrand Hindutva leader will meet with several personalities from Bollywood, which is divided along partisan lines and currently convulsed by drug raids.
The Uttar Pradesh government has green-lighted a mega Film City project close to Delhi, and the chief minister, it seems, is keen to have a slice of Bollywood here.
Adityanath had already instructed officials to search for a suitable land in or around Noida, Greater Noida or Yamuna Expressway and prepare an action plan for its execution.
During the short visit, Adityanath will meet veteran filmmakers Subhash Ghai and Boney Kapoor, Bhushan Kumar of T-Series, Jatin Sethi of Zee Studio, Randeep Hooda, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Jimmy Shergill and Raj Kumar Santoshi and trade analysts Taran Adarsh and Komal Nahta.
Gorakhpur MP and veteran actor Ravi Kishan is also set to be a part of the much-awaited meeting.
This is the second meeting of Adityanath with film personalities in the last couple of months. He had met veteran actor Anupam Kher and singer Udit Narayan previously.
With ties with the BJP at their nadir, Thackeray reacted sharply, saying nobody will be allowed to “forcibly” take away business from his state.
“Maharashtra has been a business-friendly state for decades and despite many states trying to move businesses out of it to their own states, the shift is not going to happen,” he said.
Thackeray said he was “not jealous if someone progresses” while competing. “But if you are going to forcibly take anything away, then of course, I won’t let it happen and you (industrialists) will not be willing to go,” Thackeray said at a business event.
Without naming Adityanath, he said: “Some people are coming today, they will also meet you all and ask you to come (for investments). But they do not know the magnetic strength (of Maharashtra).”
Meanwhile, senior Congressman and state’s PWD Minister Ashok Chavan accused the BJP of scheming to take away a "slice of Bollywood" to Uttar Pradesh, "When BJP was in power in Maharashtra, many industries and offices were shifted to Gujarat. Though the government changed in Maharashtra, the BJP is now readying a script to take away a slice of Bollywood in the name of the Uttar Pradesh government. Whatever had happened in the tenure of the BJP, we won't let it happen again," Chavan tweeted.
NCP MP Supriya Sule said that Bollywood going out is something out of question. “Bollywood and Mumbai are like sugar and milk…it is not going to happen,” she said.
Actor Urmila Matondkar, who joined Shiv Sena, said: “He is most welcome…Bollywood is deeply connected to Mumbai and would not go anywhere.”
She, however, extended her best wishes to UP for their FilmCity project.