Piyush Mishra to Naseeruddin Shah: Hail pilot who saved 180 lives

Recently, Piyush Mishra shared a video addressing Naseeruddin Shah over what he describes as selective activism, after Shah was seen meeting activist Abhijeet Dipke at the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP) protest in Mumbai’s Shivaji Park.

Mishra’s video does not attack the protest itself. It asks why Shah’s public concern seems to start and stop with particular causes.

What began the exchange

The CJP protest brought people together to demand the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar. Shah’s meeting with Dipke at the venue became the trigger for Mishra’s response.

The Flydubai captain who saved 180

Mishra asked Shah to publicly congratulate Captain Smit Machchhar, the pilot on Flydubai Flight 1073 from Dubai to Tel Aviv who, he said, showed bravery and saved 180 people during an in-flight attack.

“Please comment on this as well, congratulate the captain, he will feel nice,” Mishra said in the video.

The other causes on Mishra’s list

He then turned to two student-centred points:

• Lovely Professional University: Mishra said a dangerous incident had taken place and that women were dragged by police by their hair. He asked Shah to send a message to the students.
• Jharkhand: Mishra said he had personally sought Shah’s help during the student protest over alleged examination irregularities but did not receive the support he hoped for. He said the students needed food and supplies, not a poem by a Pakistani poet.

Mishra also took exception to Shah’s earlier comment that students taught him more than the National School of Drama or FTII taught him, asking Shah to explain what he meant.

What this tells film fans

The video puts two of Hindi cinema’s most outspoken actors on opposite sides of a familiar question: should a public figure who speaks on one cause be expected to speak on every cause?

Mishra clearly thinks the answer is yes, at least for Shah. During the NEET protests, Shah had told The Wire that celebrities speak when their conscience tells them to, and likened a privileged celebrity to a dog with a bone in its mouth that cannot bark. Mishra’s video asks whether that principle is being applied evenly.

The promise of more

Mishra ended the video by turning the disagreement into a standing offer.

“Now, whenever you make a statement, you’ll get a response from Piyush Mishra.”

For readers, the real takeaway is not who wins this round. It is that Shah’s public statements will now be tracked, answered and debated by another senior actor, keeping the conversation in front of the Hindi film audience.

Source: The Times of India