Kolkata: Ever since Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his team reached Jaipur to shoot for his magnum opus – Padmavati, the film has been surrounded with controversies galore. Jaipur’s Rajput Karni Sena (RKS) had ransacked the sets, slapped Bhansali and threatened the team with dire consequences if they didn’t pack up and leave. Actor Deepika Padukone, who is playing the role of Padmavati is also under constant attack.
And all that without even having read a single line of the film’s script.
Their contention – Rajput glory was being compromised. The filmmakers, had met them on several accounts, but nothing seemed to pacify them. With the film about to release, filmmakers were wary of controversies stirring up in Rajasthan, but definitely not Gujarat.
Violating Padmavati in Gujarat
Actress Deepika Padukone, who is playing the titular role, finally took on to twitter to vent out her anguish against sustained violent outrage of the RKS members. Karan K, a Surat-based Rangoli artist, on had been toiling over 48 hours to design a rangoli, of Deepika Padukone as Padmavati at a mall, just ahead of Diwali. The celebratory mood, turned into an unfortunate one, when about 100 members of RKS, chanting “Jai Sri Ram” vandalised the art work, on Monday.
Karan took on to Twitter to share how his 48-hour-long effort had been aborted by the vandals.
He tweeted, “#padmavati Rangoli controversy! A crowd of 100 people cried JAY SRI RAM and rubbed out my48hrs’ intense work! #SanjayLeelaBhansali,” on Monday. Following which he again tweeted, tagging Deepika, saying that he waiting for her reaction to this act of vandalism.
Deepika breaks her silence
The actress, who till date, had only condemned the cowardly act of forcible gagging of one’s freedom of expression, on being tagged by Karan, broke her silence. She tweeted four times to express her anguish.
“Absolutely heart breaking to see the recent attack on artist Karan and his artwork! Disgusting and appalling to say the least! Who are these people? Who is responsible for their actions?”
She then went ahead a step further, urging Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Smriti Irani, seeking for immediate action. Her tweet read, “For how long are we going to let this go on? Allow them to take law into their own hands & attack our freedom & right to individual expression time & again!? This has to stop NOW & action must be taken!@smritiirani.”
Her four tweets were liked by around 26000 people and retweeted by more than 8000 twitteratis in seven hours. She got support from some Bollywood personalities too, including Rahul Dolakia.
No remorse
Meanwhile, the president of RKS, Sukhdev Singh Gomedi had no remorse over their act of vandalism. He even posted a video of theirs, vandalising the artwork, stating that they would repeat the act if similar promotional work for Padmavati is carried out. They had even issued a threat, of setting cinema halls, showcasing Padmavati, on fire, if the film was released without having them pass the content during a special screening.
Gomedi, didn’t receive repeated calls made by eNewsroom, seeking his version, on the incident.
