Clarification: Singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya never wrote an Open Letter to Aamir Khan!

Bengaluru, Nov 29: On Friday, Nov 27, OneIndia published a story saying that famous Bollywood singer Abhijeet Bhattacharya had penned down an 'open letter' to Mr Perfectionist Aamir Khan over his remarks over 'intolerance'.

The letter slammed Aamir Khan for saying that his wife Kiran Rao once suggested him to leave the country amidst rising incidents of intolerance.

It emerged that the letter was not written by Abhijeet, but in fact, it was originally published on Tuesday, Nov 24 by Ms Shefali Vaidya, a freelance writer.

On Friday, Shefali also posted on Facebook, "I am deeply grateful to the all the readers who were prompt enough to inform me about the ToI-let Paper's publication of my Open Letter to Janab Aamir Khan and crediting it to the singer Abhijeet.

My inbox is FULL of the links of the article. Can't thank each of you individually, but really appreciate your taking the time to inform me. especially since I do not read the ToI-Let paper myself.

Shefali had written the following 'open letter' to Aamir Khan on Nov 24 on Facebook:

"An open letter to Janab Aamir Khan,

Janab Aamir Khan,

I am an ordinary Indian citizen and an avid movie-goer. You are a superstar in a country where the majority of movie-goers are Hindu. For years, we have spent our money to buy tickets for your movies. It is our money that has made you what you are today.

We clapped when as ACP Ajay Rathore, you destroyed a sweet-talking Gulfam Khan in Sarfarosh. We cheered when as Bhuvan, you played the winning shot in Lagaan. We cried when as a sensitive art teacher, you made us root for Ishaan Awasthi in Taarey Zamin Par.

A couple of generations before you, an Yusouf Khan had to become a Dilip Kumar to be accepted and a Mahajabeen Bano had to reinvent herself as Meena Kumari. Not you though. Neither you, nor your contemporaries had to hide your identity to be successful.

You became a star in a new India. An India, where only your first name mattered. We loved you because you were Aamir, a brilliant actor. Neither your last name mattered to us, nor your faith.

But yesterday, you proved to us that for you and your wife at least , it is your last name that matters more than anything else.

Your name is Khan and you Sir, are a hypocrite.

You did not scream intolerance when your city burned at the hands of some of your co-religionists. Your wife did not feel insecure when a mammoth crowd of some of your co-religionists attended the funeral of a hanged terrorist. You were silent even when a mob from Reza Academy kicked and destroyed a national memorial and manhandled female cops.

But now, suddenly, your wife feels insecure in India and wants you to move out.

If I WERE indeed intolerant, I would suggest you move to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the safest place on earth, where Begum Kiran Rao can feel absolutely secure inside her abaya and your little son can grow up watching public executions in a Riyadh square.

But I am not going to do that. As a tolerant Indian, the only thing I can and WILL do is to make sure that not even one rupee of my hard-earned money goes towards buying tickets for your movies.

Thanks for the disappointments.

Regards,

Shefali Vaidya"

OneIndia News