Anupam Kher calls Hansal Mehta 'hypocrite' for agreeing with 'The Accidental Prime Minister' criticism, says he was creative director on film

Anupam Kher and Hansal Mehta

Social media provides a place to all to speak out their mind about various topics and further discuss/argue over it. Recently, filmmaker Hansal Mehta and actor Anupam Kher had a minor disagreement on a particular topic on X with the actor calling the filmmaker a hypocrite.

It all began with Mehta agreeing with an X user critiquing the film 'The Accidental Prime Minister' in which Kher essayed the role of the former PM Dr Manmohan Singh.

Following the demise of Dr Singh, journalist Vir Sanghvi wrote on X, "If you want to remember the lies that were told about Manmohan Singh you should rewatch The Accidental Prime Minister. It is not only one of the worst Hindi movies ever made but is an example of how media was used to tarnish the name of a good man."

Responding to the tweet, Mehta wrote, "+ 100".

Anupam Kher calls Hansal Mehta 'hypocrite'

Anupam Kher who played the lead role in the 2019 film did not take kindly to Mehta agreeing with the comment against the film. The reason? Kher revealed that Mehta served as the creative director in the film and was present during the entirety of the shoot giving his inputs to the film.

"The HYPOCRITE in this thread is NOT @virsanghvi. He has the freedom to not like a film. But @mehtahansal was the #CreativeDirector of #TheAccidentalPrimeMinister. Who was present at the entire shoot of the film in England! Giving his creative inputs and must have taken the fee also for it. So for him to say 100% to #VirSanghvi's comment is so messed up and full of double standards! Not that I agree with Mr. Sanghvi but we are all capable of doing bad or indifferent work. But we should OWN it. Not like #HansalMehta trying to earn some brownies from certain section of people. Common Hansal!! Grow up! I still have all our videos and pics of the shoot together!"

The senior also dug out an old tweet of Mehta from 2019 where he spoke about working on the film.

"Dear Akshaye Khanna. You are a special actor and a very special person as I discovered during the making of #TheAccidentalPrimeMinister. May your talent shine bright. Thank you for interpreting Sanjaya Baru with charm, wit and spontaneity," the tweet read.

Hansal Mehta responds to Anupam Kher

Mehta responded to the tweet and admitted to his mistake. "Of course I own my mistakes Mr Kher. And I can admit that I made a mistake. Can't I sir? I did my job as professionally as I was allowed to. Can you deny that? But it doesn't mean I have to keep defending the film or that it makes me lose objectivity about my error of judgement. About brownie points and hypocrisy I respectfully submit that you seem to be evaluating people by the same yardstick you evaluate yourself.

He further apologised to the senior actor and offered to talk to him off the internet and clear the air. "And by the way @anupampkhersir… you can say all you want. Call me names if you wish. Apologies if I've inadvertently hurt you. Sending love to you. Whenever you wish we will speak and clear the air. I will not give space to trolls to distort this further and have a field day at our expense. Good night, belated X'mas greetings and a happy new year in advance. To you and to all the hyperactive trolls.