Actor Prakash Raj ‘stopped’ getting Bollywood offers since he questioned PM Modi’s silence on Gauri Lankesh

New Delhi: Continuing his criticism on the Modi government, actor Prakash Raj has claimed that he stopped getting roles from Bollywood since he started criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Ahead of the crucial Karnataka assembly elections, the actor has stirred controversy by claiming that he stopped getting offers from Bollywood after he criticised Prime Minister Modi for his “silence” on the murder of journalist Gauri Lankesh.

“There is no problem (with the film industry) in the south, but there has been no offer from the Hindi film industry since I started speaking out,” Raj was quoted as saying by The Print.

“Gauri’s death disturbed me a lot… She was asking questions. When she was silenced, I felt guilty. Did we leave her alone in her fight? The more I question, the more attempts to silence me, be it (by) character assassination, threat or (by) trying to stop my work…,” he was quoted as saying further.

Lankesh was murdered outside her residence in Bengaluru in September. A special investigations team had, in March, arrested one person in connection with her murder. Raj, Lankesh’s friend, has been a critique of the BJP government at the centre and has been reportedly campaigning against the party in the forthcoming Karnataka polls.

Later on, Friday, speaking during a debate with BJP’s Subramanian Swamy at Times Now’s Karnataka Now event in Bengaluru, Raj questioned the rise of Hindutva under the BJP government.