Punish us if we are guilty: Amitabh Bachchan

Mumbai, Sep 11: On Wednesday, Sep 10 Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan said while apologizing for his wife Jaya Bachchan's anti-marathi remarks that they ready for any punishment if found guilty.

“I do not think we have said or done anything negative but we will leave it to the State," “We apologise and seek forgiveness. Thereafter, if the matter is still not settled, we have been told that there will be an investigation and we'll wait for the investigation results. If we are found guilty of any crime, punish us," he said in a press conference in Mumbai on Wednesday, Sep 10. He added that he is even ready to go to jail of he had committed crime.

R R Patil, Home Minister of Maharashtra has said that they will investigate what Jaya has said. Big B said me and my wife had already apologized for the comments. I have no problem with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena(MNS) chief Raj Thackeray. Big B referred Raj Thackeray as a 'friend'.

Amitabh Bachchan's latest film 'The Last Lear's releases on Friday, Sep 12. The Last Lear's premier was shelved at the last minute in Mumbai on Wednesday, Sep 10 as some miscreants attacks a ticket booking center in Mumbai prior to premier The premier was scheduled on Thursday, Sep 11.

Amitabh Bachchan and his family had faced a boycott threat of their films after angering the MNS, which recently protested against millions of migrant workers in Maharashtra. Bachchan, who hails from Uttar Pradesh and found fame and fortune in Mumbai, has become a lightning rod for critics, who say immigrants have sidelined the local people from the Maharashtra.

The latest row erupted after Bachchan's actress-politician wife Jaya Bachchan spoke in Hindi at a Bollywood function in Mumbai on Saturday, Sep 5 prompting Thackeray to issue the boycott threat. Bachchan said she would speak in Hindi as her family hailed from a state where the language is widely spoken. Hindi is also the national language.

The remark irked MNS, which announced a boycott of films starring any member of the Bachchan family, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya, their son Abhishek and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai. The film industry too, on Monday, Sep 8 closed ranks to stand behind the Bachchans.

“Mumbai does not belong to people who speak one language only. No one can force a ban on our films," said T P Agarwal, president of the Indian Motion Picture Producers Association. "This goondaraj has to be stopped," said Pahlaj Nihalani, president of the Association of Motion Pictures and Television Programme Producers.

Earlier, television reports had said MNS party workers in Mumbai tore down posters of Amitabh Bachchan's 'The Last Lear,' a film slated for release on Friday, Sep 12. Last week, some party activists were arrested for vandalising shops in the city after owners failed to put up signboards in Marathi language.

Earlier this year, MNS workers in Maharashtra were accused of intimidation, damaging vehicles and beating up taxi drivers, who are mostly migrants.

Less than 50 percent of Mumbai's 17 million residents are Maharashtrians. Many hail from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Meanwhile Congress president Sonia Gandhi came in support of the Bachchans. She had asked Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to look into the matter.

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