Bengaluru family bullied for not standing for National Anthem in multip

A screengrab from the viral video that was posted on Twitter.

Bengaluru: Four people were forced to leave the multiplex in Bengaluru after they refused to stand up for the National Anthem being played before the film was screened. A report in the Mumbai Mirror said the incident that went viral on social media, took place last Wednesday during the screening of the Tamil release Asuran starring Dhanush.

The report said prior to the screening, the group refused to stand up while the National Anthem was being played. A few movie-goers protested against the group's act initially, and they confronted them during the intermission. The confrontation took a violent turn after one of the protestors told them that not standing up for national anthem amounts to disrespecting the country. The person also asked them "if they were Pakistanis", the report said.

The person who shot the viral video was quoted in the report, saying that he did so to know why the people did not stand up for the national anthem. "I know that as per a Supreme Court judgement, it is not mandatory to stand up when the National Anthem is played in cinemas, but I wanted to know the reason why they did not stand up," he was quoted as saying.

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