According to sources, Karan Johar and producer Mahaveer Jain had organised the meeting of the stars with the PM, the primary reason for which is “participation and contribution of these youth icons towards nation building”.
Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Ranveer Singh, Rajkummar Rao, Bhumi Pednekar, Vicky Kaushal, Varun Dhawan, Ayushmann Khurana and Siddharth Malhotra will be a part of the closed door meeting scheduled for Thursday evening. Filmmakers Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari and Rohit Shetty, too, are a part of the delegation.
The meeting came weeks after the PM met Bollywood producers and discussed the issues faced by the industry, which led to the reduction in GST on film tickets by the government.
Earlier in December PM Modi had met producers Ritesh Sidhwani, Karan Johar, Sidharth Roy Kapur, Rakesh Roshan, Ronnie Screwwala, actor-producers Ajay Devgn and Akshay Kumar, and CBFC chairman Prasoon Joshi in Mumbai to discuss issues pertaining to the film industry. The meeting of the delegation came under fire for the glaring lack of female representation, especially since it happened on the heels of a similar all-male assembly that took place in October when filmmakers Aanand L Rai, Aamir Khan, Siddharth Roy Kapur, Rajkummar Hirani and others lead by producer Ritesh Sidhwani had met the Prime Minister.