Bengaluru theatre owner playing national anthem for 14 years

BENGALURU: A theatre in city that has been playing the national anthem for 14 years before film shows is worried that the Supreme Court's November 30 order making this mandatory may lead to political fallout and terror concerns.

Former Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce president KV Chandrashekar told ET that he and his brother, Supreme Court lawyer KV Dhananjay, had introduced the practice as a mark of their own patriotism.

“I belong to the Congress. There was no politics in this decision - all of us a patriots. Dhananjay and I wanted to play the anthem in our theatre and as soon as surround sound technology made this possible, we introduced it,“ he said.


Dhananjay told ET that during his visit to Bangkok he was inspired by the way the Thai public showed respect to their king ahead of film shows.

“I felt we could replicate it in our theatre by playing our national anthem.. It has been successful and we have had no problems at all doing it, though I have some reservations on whether it should be mandatory ,“ he said.

The theatre owner is now worried that with the apex court making not only the playing of the anthem, but standing up for it also mandatory , it could lead to some trouble.

“Till now, theatres were ignored by terror groups and we functioned without any problem. If politics is brought in and played out in the audience, we may also end up being targeted, I am worried about that,“ Chandrashekar said.