The release of Padmavati has been temporarily postponed amid rising protest against the movie.Director Sanjay Leela Bansali’s magnum opus Padmavati has been mired in controversies ever since the project was announced. There were incidents of vandalism on the sets of Padmavati allegedly by the Rajput Karni Sena, forcing the makers to shift its location from Rajasthan to Maharashtra. Bhansali was assaulted by a group of hooligans on the sets once, accusing the director of hurting the Rajput sentiments by distorting the history of the Rajputi queen Padmavati who acquires the status of a goddess among the Rajputs for her valor and deep regard for feminine honor.
Now, the Rajput Karni Sena has decided to intensify their protest against the release of the movie. Karni Sena chief Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi has demanded a complete shutdown on the movie and had warned that they will not allow the movie to be released anywhere in the country. He also openly threatened that those theaters where Padmavati is released in Kerala would be burned down.
The Karni Sena chief did not spare the movie’s lead actress Deepika Padukone either. He said that Deepika has insulted queen Padmavati by wearing skimpy clothes in one of the dance sequences in the movie. He also added that the Sena would not allow anyone to hurt the honor of the Rajputi queen. The release of Padmavati has been temporarily postponed amidst rising protest against the movie.
The various Hindu outfits have demanded a ban on the movie. The Brahmana Mahasabha has expressed their protest by sending a petition signed by its members in blood to the Censor Board. The Mahasabha claimed that the letter to the Censor Board had been ‘smeared’ with the blood of more than a thousand members of the outfit.
The Brahmana Mahasabha is the latest to join the protest after the Karni Sena in Rajasthan has threatened to chop off Deepika Padukone’s nose. The Uttar Pradesh government had also written to the internal affairs ministry requesting a probe to see whether the movie hurts the sentiments of the Rajput community, before allowing the release of Padmavati.
The Karni Sena alleged that director Sanjay Bhansali has allegedly filmed romantic scenes between Rani Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji while the history states that the brave queen had in fact killed herself by jumping into a funeral pyre before Khilji could capture her.
The theater and multiplex owners too have been threatened against exhibiting the movie. Meanwhile, Bhansali said that his version of the movie is based on a romantic poem ‘Padmavat’ written by the Sufi poet Malik Muhammed Jayasi. The Supreme Court had Monday rejected a plea to ban the release of Padmavati.
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