Rajput body holds signature campaign against Padmavati

Kolkata: A Rajput organisation today launched a signature campaign against Sanjay Leela Bhansali directed Padmavati in the city vowing to stop its release without cuts.

Similar signature campaigns took pace in Howrah as well and seven sister organisations of the Akhil Bharatiya Kendriya Samaj are taking part in the campaign. “We want the distortions of history in the film to be corrected and the romantic dream sequence involving Padmavati be deleted,” a spokesman of the Akhil Bharatiya Khatriya Samaj told reporters during the signature campaign.

On Sunday, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, the studio behind “Padmavati”, had announced that it was voluntarily deferring the release of the film, earlier scheduled on December 1, out of “respect and regard for the law of the land” and the Central Board of Film Certification.

The Akhil Bharatiya Khatriya Samaj also lambasted Bhansali for the film’s trailers alleging that the visuals hurt sentiments of Rajput community members and Hindus.

“We are planning to submit a deputation to West Bengal governor tomorrow so that he can communicate the feelings of the people of our community in the city to the Centre and the West Bengal government,” he said.

Earlier on Sunday, a group, claiming to be members of Karni Sena, staged protests before a theatre in the city for displaying posters of the film prompting its owners to inform the police.

Mr Bhansali recently clarified that rumours about the romantic dream sequence are not true as he was careful in depicting the “Rajput honour and dignity”.

The film starred Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji. Historians are divided on whether Rani Padmavati even existed.