The Shiv Sena and Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s style of persuasion has prompted several Bollywood stars to publicly declare a new-found love for the Marathi language. The most prominent among them is Amitabh Bachchan who read out a few lines from poems by well-known Marathi poets at the All India Marathi Literary Conference held recently in Pune.
Later, at an award function of a Marathi TV channel, Amir Khan declared that he has been taking Marathi lessons. Shah Rukh Khan, who was pilloried by the Shiv Sena when My Name is Khan was released, is doing likewise, and went further by publicly supporting the screening of Marathi films in multiplexes.