Former Indian football team captain and Sikkim resident Bhaichung Bhutia has expressed his shock over actor Priyanka Chopra’s statement at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) where she said Sikkim is a state “troubled by insurgency.”
Chopra has been slammed on social media for calling Sikkim an "insurgency affected state". The actor, who recently presented her home production "Pahuna", a Sikkimese language film, at the ongoing TIFF, claimed in an interview with ET Canada that it was the first-ever film to have emerged from Sikkim as it's a "very troubled" region.
In an article published in Hindustan Times on Thursday, Bhutia, who is also playing a cameo in the film, wrote her statement was “shocking and untrue”.
“It has deeply hurt the sentiments of the people in the state. I am surprised that Priyanka made this comment because she is one of the best and intellectually sharpest actresses, and she speaks sensibly. It could be that someone fed her with wrong information about the state. In fact, I am doing a cameo in her new movie, Pahuna, which got standing ovation at TIFF,” he wrote.
Speaking to Sportskeeda, he said: "Sikkim is one of the most politically stable states in the country since 1975, and there has not been a single insurgency since then. I don't know where Priyanka obtained this data, but it has nothing to do with our state. She probably mixed it up with another Northeastern state, but her words have deeply affected the people of our state. One of the primary reason that people from across the country tend to stereotype Northeast is that of their lack of awareness from the region."
In an interview to ET Canada , Chopra said: Sikkim is a small state in the Northeast of India which never had a film industry or anyone who made films from the region. This is the first film ever that's come out of that region, because it's very troubled with insurgency and troubling situations," she said.
After being slammed on social media, Chopra tendered an apology to the Sikkim government, while her mother Madhu Chopra spoke to Ugen Gyatso, the tourism minister of Sikkim to apologise for the comment, reported India Today.
