Indian actor gets threats for playing Gandhi's assassin

New Delhi - Ponkshe has played the role of Godse for nearly 19 years

Marathi actor Sharad Ponkshe stood on the stage to perform at a theatre in Sindhurhurg, when two women stood up and threw two bottles of ink on him.
"The ink was all over my costume," the actor recalls. "Bapu hum sharminda hain, tumhara kaatil zinda hain (Bapu, we are embarrassed, your murderer is still alive)," someone screamed from the crowd.
According to the Mid-Day, the actor was playing the infamous role of Nathuram Vinayak Godse, the assassin of Mahatma Gandhi. The incident, however, did not stop him from playing his scene.
"How could I have killed Gandhi? Gandhiji died in 1948, I was born in 1966. Why say things that have you look stupid?," Mid-Day quoted him saying.
Ponkshe has played the role of Godse for nearly 19 years. He first played the role in a controversial Marathi drama Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy.
He also played the same role in the film Hey Ram. Recently, he also played the same role in a play he scripted. The actor has been facing repeated threats ever since he first played the role at the age of 32.
"It hasn't stopped me from playing Godse. It never will. History text books reduced his life to one sentence. The man who assassinated Gandhi. But he has such a fascinating story," the 51-year old actor said, insisting that history needs to investigate the real reason why Gandhi was assassinated.

• India