Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Friday said their governments would not allow the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat in the states, News18 reported. Earlier, Rajasthan had said that theatres across the state will not screen the film.

Padmaavat will be released on January 25.

The ban on the film would remain intact, Chouhan said. “Jo kaha hai wahi hoga [whatever I said earlier would continue to remain in force],” the Madhya Pradesh chief minister told reporters.

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Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police detained 96 people protesting outside the Central Board of Film Certification’s office condemning its decision to give the film a UA certificate, ANI reported.

The fight to release the movie

Padmaavat, which has also been converted to 3D, was originally slated to be released on December 1. Repeated protests and threats of violence by Rajput groups, led by the Rajput Karni Sena, stalled the movie’s release and delayed its certification. The censor board, headed by Prasoon Joshi, appointed a panel of historians to look into the claim that the film contains historical inaccuracies. The movie was finally cleared with a few changes on the condition that Bhansali and Viacom18 Motion Pictures change the title from Padmavati to Padmavat to align it closer to its source material.

Starring Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor, the historical drama is based on the 16th Century poem of the same name by Malik Muhammad Jaisi. Relying on folklore, legend, history and the imagination, Padmaavat explores Delhi Sultanate ruler Alauddin Khilji’s lust for Chittor queen Padmini, which leads to a battle that claims the lives of the queen and her husband, Ratansen.

Padmini is widely thought to be a fictional character and Padmavat is a romanticised account of the battle in Chittor. The story has been widely adapted for the screen, including by Hindi and Tamil producers and for television, without any incident in the past.