Panaji: Ace Bollywood filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani on Tuesday questioned the idea of religions, saying more number of people have died due to religions than anything else. Flaying the divisive attitudes, the director of PK said the present situation in our country is not conducive as everything, from colours to animals, is being divided in the name of religion.
Speaking at an 'In Conversation' event as part of the IFFI-15 at Kala Academy here, the director said "India's biggest problems will be solved the moment people get rid of the divisive attitude."
"We human beings have divided everything. The colour green is for Muslims, 'gerua' for someone else. We have even divided animals - cow for one and goat for another. We need to understand that we are one race. The moment we take this off, a lot of problems will be solved. Lots of people have died in our country in the name of religion and nothing else," Hirani said.
The director went on to talk about his movie PK, which lambasted religious fundamentalism and blind faith. He said he chose an alien to be its lead character as he did not want the protagonist to represent any religion.
"This was the only film, which I genuinely wanted to be talking about something. I have always been fascinated by the concepts regarding God. There are many people around us who are giving us these answers but they are often contradictory.”
He underscored that he was prompted to make PK in order to tell the audience loudly that religion is man-made.
"Lots of the fights in our country are because of religion. We don't realize that religion is nothing but man-made," he said.
However, Hirani kept silence on his collaborator Aamir Khan's comments on the growing climate of intolerance.
The director who made films like Munnabhai MBBS, Lage Raho Munnabhai and 3 Idiots after an illustrious career as a film editor, was all praise for the profession of editors. "An editor is not simply someone who cuts films. An editor creates emotions," he said.