Bollywood has Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s back

The buzz around Padmavati took a sudden and drastic turn on Friday, when the members of a radical group — the Rajput Karni Sena — stormed the sets of the movie in Jaigarh, Rajasthan. The group vandalised the sets and even roughed up the director. Rajput Karni Sena shot the entire altercation and subsequently released the video. While the police had detained five individuals for disturbing the peace, following no action from Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s quarters, they have been released from custody.

The film fraternity, in the meantime, has risen as one against the outrage, with prominent filmmakers and actors taking to Twitter to express their solidarity with the director and condemning the incident. Some, however, believe that the time for dialogue and tweeting is over and that stricter action needs to be taken.

“A hashtag won’t change things. We need assurance from the central government and state government that they will ensure that such a thing does not repeat itself. It has been over 17 years that the Shiv Sena blackened my face over a dialogue in a film, and if anything, the situation has only become worse,” says filmmaker Hansal Mehta.

Screen grab of the video where the director was attacked.

Director Anil Sharma, who shot his iconic film Gadar: Ek Prem Katha in Rajasthan, says that he is shocked at this development, as he had expected better from the government and the police force of the city. “This whole event is simply not acceptable — if you have a point to put across then you come and speak with the director. You don’t go and beat him up! Whether they were right or wrong in what they thought doesn’t even matter at this point; what matters is that their method was wrong. Where were the police and security personnel when this was happening?” he asks, outraged.

Director Mohit Suri concurs with Anil’s views and adds that, in a country where Mahatma Gandhi conveyed the message of non-violence, and where this motto should have become a cornerstone of society, it is especially shocking to find these instances of violent outbursts. “We have a board for film certification, which can decide if something is historically relevant or if something insults someone’s religious sentiments. Who are these people to come and take matters into their own hands this way? How do they even know what is happening in the film when it hasn’t even been shot yet,” demands an angry Mohit, adding that he is speaking, not as a fellow fraternity member, but as a citizen of India when he asks for strict government action.

The culpability, however, says Hansal, lies partly with the fraternity itself, since it has failed to stand up for itself on so many occasions prior to this. “This is a result of our own silence and subservience to the continuous process of suppression of our cultural freedom, which has been going on for a while now. Our freedom of expression has been systematically curtailed but there is no systematic counter effort from the fraternity,” he says, adding that such acts of violence have probably just begun.

Vivek Agnihotri, who was also mobbed by university students and sustained injuries in an altercation, while promoting Buddha in a Traffic Jam sympathises with SLB’s predicament. However, he encourages a more active participation from the film fraternity to counter this type of violence. “These events are purely extortionist and are meant as a threat. The film fraternity doesn’t express its outrage on Twitter, when a smaller director faces a similar predicament. Also, just tweeting about it isn’t enough. Associations in the film industry should come together and do something about this. If production houses like Phantom Films and Dharma Productions were to simply say that we will make no more films till something is done, then the government would be bound to act,” he says confidently.