Actor Naseeruddin Shah has said the Khans of Bollywood don’t voice their opinion because they will find it “difficult” to take the “harassment” that will follow, adding he wished they had “more confidence”.

Shah, who has never shied away from speaking his mind, said he could do so perhaps because he did not have much to lose.

Speaking about Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan, Shah said during an interview with India Today aired on the news channel on Tuesday night: “How much will they lose? They will lose an endorsement or two. It’s not that… it’s the harassment they will be subjected to. They find it difficult to take. And the fact that Aamir and Shah Rukh withdrew completely into a shell after making one harmless statement respectively illustrates this. I suppose I can speak because I don’t have much to lose.”

Shah said the film industry had the power to stay independent and wished it had enough courage to do so. “But they are giving in because their interests are too large and too varied and they have too much to lose and they’re easy targets,” he said.

Shah cautioned against “rising Right-wing fanaticism”. He said his comments about a section of Indian Muslims celebrating the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan had been misconstrued.

“Maybe I made a mistake by not speaking clearly enough and clarifying that I didn’t mean the entire Muslim community, which is how it is being interpreted by interested parties,” the actor said.