Even as several film people condemned the recent felling of trees at Aarey in Bombay to make way for the Metro car shed, people on Twitter condemned the fact that the film people’s very own Film City was among the earliest concrete structures to have encroached upon the Aarey forest area. The Film City at Goregaon in Bombay is spread over 520 acres of land.
Shekhar Kapur decried the hacking of trees and agreed that the construction of Film City years back, by encroaching on the Aarey forest land was a huge mistake. He added that because of deforestation, more and more children in India were asthmatic. He concluded that if demolishing Film City could save a forest, then there was nothing to discuss as in such a case, the Film City ought to be demolished. Actress Raveena Tandon agreed with Kapur and explained that Film City and luxury resorts were replaceable but “our children’s future is not”. Varun Dhawan, in response to a query by someone on Twitter, said that a wrong of the past doesn’t need to be repeated, indirectly admitting thereby that the construction of Film City on Aarey forest land was wrong. When probed further, he added that if Film City could be relocated to a place where it wouldn’t take up forest land, it would be the best. Richa Chadda defended the Film City and asked those seeking answers to question the government about why it had permitted the Film City to come up in the Aarey forest area.