MP home minister terms Deepika's attire in 'Pathaan' song objectionable

Bhopal/Indore: Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Wednesday objected to actor Deepika Padukone's costume in a song of Bollywood film "Pathaan" and also frowned upon the colour of the attire of Padukone and lead actor Shah Rukh Khan, calling for its "rectification".

Mishra said if certain scenes in the song are not "corrected", the government will consider what to do about the screening of the movie in Madhya Pradesh.

He said the "green" and "saffron" colours of the attire of the actor (Khan) and the actress (Padukone) need to be "rectified" along with the lyrics of the song and also the title of the film, which will hit the screens next month.

"I feel the title of the song 'Besharam Rang' is also objectionable in its sense," he told reporters in Indore.

He also targeted Khan, saying while the actor visits the Vaishno Devi shrine but he brings women actors in his films in bikinis.

Mishra's statement came after the song, "Besharam Rang", featuring Padukone was released recently.

"In the song 'Besharam Rang' which is made with contaminated mentality, the actor and the actress are clad in green and saffron clothes in an objectionable manner," he said.

Mishra further said Padukone's costumes in the song are prima facie "highly objectionable" and it is clearly visible that this song was filmed out of a "contaminated mentality".

"I would request to correct the scenes and her (Padukone's) costumes (in the song), otherwise whether this film should be allowed in Madhya Pradesh or not will be a question to be considered," Mishra told reporters at Janapav in Mhow tehsil in Indore district earlier in the day.

The senior BJP leader also targeted Khan over the portrayal of female actors in his movies.

On the one hand, he visits Mata Vaishno Devi shrine, which is a good thing, but on the other, he brings women actors in bikinis in his films, This is not good, Mishra added.

In the same breath, he said Padukone has been a supporter of the "Tukde Tukde gang as seen in the JNU case".

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) often uses the "tukde-tukde gang" remark coined in the aftermath of a JNU protest in Delhi in 2016.

"Pathaan", a Hindi-language action thriller film, is scheduled for release on January 25, 2023.

Notably, Mishra, a senior leader of BJP in Madhya Pradesh, in October warned the makers of the Bollywood film "Adipurush", based on the epic Ramayana, of legal action if scenes showing Hindu religious figures in the "wrong" way are not removed.

In July this year, he directed to file an FIR (First Information Report) over a controversial poster of filmmaker Leena Manimekalai's documentary 'Kaali' after an outrage.