Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje on Saturday urged the Centre to ensure that Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s film Padmavati is not released without the changes that have been demanded by various groups, ANI reported.
In a letter to the Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani, Raje suggested that a committee should be formed comprising historians, film personalities and the “aggrieved party”. The committee should discuss the film and its plot and suggest amendments, ANI reported.
“The Censor board should also analyse the possible results after release of a film rather than just giving its certificate to a film,” Raje said in her letter, according to The Times of India. “...Suitable changes should be made to ensure film may not hurt the sentiments of the society as a whole.”
Raje said though filmmakers have a right to make a film as per their wisdom, they should take care of law and order and morality. The Censor board must think of consequences before certifying the film, she added, according to ANI.
On November 15, the Uttar Pradesh government asked the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to stop the release of the film to avoid law and order problems. “Movies with distorted historical facts, exaggeration, false and fictional stories create a vicious atmosphere in the nation,” UP Principal Secretary (Home) Arvind Kumar said in the letter to the ministry.
However, the Centre on Thursday had refused to intervene, saying law and order was a state subject and the state should look into it.
The Rajput Karni Sena had declared a nationwide strike on December 1 if Padmavati is released, demanding a ban on the movie. The outfit’s founder, Lokendra Singh Kalvi, requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene in the matter, and claimed that the Cinematography Act allows the government to withhold a movie’s release for three months even after it has been given clearance by the Central Board of Film Certification.
Padmavati, starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, has been in the midst of a controversy since January when members of the Rajput Karni Sena assaulted Bhansali on the set of the movie in Jaipur. The shoot was then shifted to Maharashtra. The Karni Sena is against a supposed romantic scene between Rani Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji, which Bhansali had said was not in the film.
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