Today marked the beginning of the Shanghai Corporation Organization Film Festival in Mumbai. Anurag Thakur, the minister of information and broadcasting, discussed a number of subjects. He claimed that although Pakistan and other countries were invited to the film festival, they declined to take part. “See, anytime a global tournament has taken place, we have invited all those nations that are a part of the world,” he remarked.
They can choose to participate or not. All SCO members have received the invitation that we gave out. If I list the members, it will be a lengthy list. As you can see, we have opened the gates and sent out the invitations.
However, the minister dodged the question and replied, “please, for now, let us confine it to the SCO festival alone,” when asked if the government’s invitation to Pakistan for the film festival meant that the ban on Pakistani artists should be abolished.
After the URI attack in 2016, Pakistani artists were prohibited from performing in India.
