The undeniable ace-filmmker and music-creator Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s films have rocked the Bollywood screen with Ramleela, Bajirao Mastani, clinching the hot seat of best director for two years consecutively.
Another anticipatedly-hit flick which has consumed Bhansali is Padmavati. For Padmavati, the director is in for a battery of protests and not normal protests, but those which are utterly violent. He has entered into trouble waters with protesters reportedly belonging to Karni Sena disrupting the shooting in Jaipur at Nahargarh, claiming that the film portrays Rani Padmavati in an inappropriate light. The film shooting went rolling in Rajasthan.
Protestors went to an extent that protests threw shooting equipment and initiated a violent protest that exhorted the director Sanjay Leela Bhansali to resort to police interference. Owing to the nuisance and bitter menace created at the Jaigarh, the shoot has been shunned only until the situations comes under control.
Interestingly, Karni Sena is the same group who protested against Ashutosh Gowariker’s Jodhaa Akbar claiming that Jodhaa was married to Akbar’s son instead of Akbar.
Padmavati too has followed the suit after Bjairao Mastani. Bhansali’s last film Bajirao Mastani too faced the anger pangs of Bajirao and Mastani’s lineage who were irked by the reportedly false claimand portrayals of characters.
“Rajputs in Rajasthan are fairly traditional and we are taught our khandani history even before we start school. The community had already sent a word to Bhansali that incorrect portrayal will not go down well. Bollywood takes lots of liberties and tinkers with history while making films on real characters and that never goes down well with our community.”
The SLB flick starres Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, and is slated to release towards 2017 end-early 2018.
