Sanjay Leela Bhansali's much anticipated period drama Padmavati has been in the news ever since its inception, thanks to right wing groups like Karni Sena who have accused the director of distorting historical facts. Like minded groups attacked the sets and vandalised the property, even manhandled the director in a show of protest.
Just after a day, the film resumes to court controversy, courtesy a Rajashtan Minister. According to a report by the Indian Express, Rajasthan’s Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Arun Chaturvedi has said that the film would be screened before a committee of the Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena (SRRKS) “and other knowledgeable members of society”.
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The minister reportedly met a delegation of leaders from the organisation and assured them that the shooting of the film is brought to a hault. "Even if it is released in the state, it will be screened before members of SRRKS and other knowledgeable members of society, from whom we will invite objections to the movie,” the report has quoted the minister’s department as saying.
" The government’s stand is that the filmmakers won’t be allowed to shoot Padmavati in Rajasthan anymore. As for its release, that can happen only once its script is bereft of all objections which have been raised by these organisations,” Chaturvedi told the newspaper.
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This, however, is not the first time a Rajasthan Minister has offered the Karni Sena to turn into Censor Board for the film.
Earlier, Rajasthan Energy Minister Pushpendra Singh had assured a section of the Rajput community that the film will not be released in the state.
"We will not allow the release of the film in Rajasthan till it is screened to our community members," the minister had told the gathering.
Padmavati, starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor has been accused of tampering with Rajput history by certain Hindutva organisations which resorted to vandalising the sets of the film.
In January, Bhansali and his crew had cancelled the shooting of Padmavati in Jaipur in the wake of assault on him and vandalism on the sets of the movie by a Rajput group that has triggered outrage in the film industry.
Earlier this year, Bhansali was roughed up by members of a Rajput community group, who also stopped the shooting of the film by damaging the set at Jaigarh Fort in Rajasthan.
Yesterday, the set of Padmavati at Kolhapur was vandalised and costumes torched .
The shooting of the film was underway at Mhasai Pathar, when a group of around 15-20 people came to the set between 1 AM and 2 AM.
