Founder of Rajput Karni Sena, Lokendra Singh Kalvi, told Hindustan Times that the group will give a representation to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, demanding that they start a “pre-screening board” to properly examine films that feature historical themes.
The Karni Sena leader spoke of how the committee could include retired judges, journalists, and historians hailing from the states concerned. These fresh demands of the activist group come soon after Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his Padmavati team were forced to delete a dream sequence in the film, which the group violently protested against.
Last month, SLB was assaulted by protesters who stormed on to the sets of the period-drama. The shooting was taking place at Jaipur Fort when it was stalled after Karni Sena activists barged into the premises and assaulted the director. They protested against the romantic scenes between the two main characters, calling it “a distortion of facts”. “Our basic protest is about distortion of historic facts, which will not be tolerated,” said a member of the group then.
Earlier, Kalvi had also cited Adolf Hitler as an example and the consequences of distorting facts in fiction. “Does he have the capacity to film a movie against Adolf Hitler in Germany? Things that did not exist in history should not be depicted in films. We said the same thing during the shooting of Jodha Akhbar,” he told ANI News.
Since then, SLB and Padmavati‘s team have vehemently denied harming any sentiments and including any romantic scene between the two characters – Rani Padma and Alauddin Khilji. Last week, the team even took to Twitter urging fans to retweet the news and spread the hashtag #NoSceneBetweenRaniPadmavatiAndAlauddinKhilji.
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Despite repeated statements from the team that there was no dream sequence, the Karni Sena continues their protests, with even a BJP leader offering a Rs.10,000/- reward to anyone who slaps SLB. The Rajput group made newer demands, ordering that the title change to ‘Ratan Singh’ and that a screening committee should be allowed to watch the film before it releases.
Incidentally, the group have targeted others in the past, including Ekta Kapoor and Zee News over the TV series Jodha Akbar in the past, stating that they had a problem with the alleged distortion of facts in the period drama.
Padmavati will feature Deepika Padukone as Queen Padmini while Shahid Kapoor plays Padmini’s husband Rana Rawal Ratan Singh. Ranveer Singh will play Alauddin Khilji, who is motivated to kidnap the Rani, Padmini.
Feature Image: Business-Standard.com