The protest and controversy against the historical epic movie Padmavati has reached a new level of hysteria, as the movie was banned in Madhya Prasdesh by the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, on the grounds of distortion of historical facts, even though he has not watched the movie itself. And now, Chief Minister of Punjab, Capt. Amarinder Singh has given his support to the people who are supporting the ban on Padmavati. The movie has already been delayed by the makers, as it was returned from CBFC due to technical difficulties and couldn’t be approved by the time of its release.
This could mean that the movie is going to be banned in other states too, as the pressure by the fringe group Karni Sena is building, even though no one among the group has watched the movie and is mainly working from a misconception that director Sanjay Leela Bhansali distorted historical truths to fit his vision.
Death threats have been made against Deepika Padukone and Bhansali, from 10 crore bounties to 1 crore to anyone who would burn Padukone alive, similar to the fate of Rani Padmini, who committed suicide to protect her honor against the invader, Allaudin Khilji.
The controversy related to the movie is not halting, while people are concerned as to why the government is not doing anything to the reports of the death threats, and why the CBFC returned the movie when the mistake could’ve been rectified by a simple phone call. Celebrities and politicians have taken opposite stands, with the latter being silent to protect their vote banks and the former afraid to say anything overtly negative. Sanjay Leela Bhansali has not commented on the recent controversies, but he did show the movie to journalists, which further riled the protesters, who were asking for a screening for months.
There will be surely be another set of bans and controversies until the movie is approved by the CBFC and released, but for now, it is only working as a distraction for other, more important issues.
By banning Padmavati even before either seeing the movie or for that matter it’s release is a dangerous trend and @ChouhanShivraj has set a terrible precedent: it doesn’t behove a democratically elected government to behave in this reprehensible manner.
— SUHEL SETH (@suhelseth) November 20, 2017
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