Ram Gopal Varma Booked for Remarks on Presidential Candidate Droupadi Murmu

He tweeted, "If Drapaudi is the President who are the Pandavas? And more importantly, who are the Kauravas?"

Ram Gopal Varma.

(Photo: Twitter)

Film director and producer Ram Gopal Varma, on Monday, 27 June, has been booked due to remarks he made on NDA presidential candidate Droupadi Murmu.

In a tweet on 22 June, Varma said, "If Drapaudi is the President who are the Pandavas? And more importantly, who are the Kauravas?"

Following the tweet, Telangana BJP leader Gudur Narayana Reddy filed a complaint against Varma, slamming his comments against Murmu.

"This tweet is tantamount to disrespecting the SC and ST people. Here, he calls 'Draupadi' the President. We would have had no objections if he had only mentioned Draupadi, Pandavas and Kauravas. We, the BJP workers, are hurt at such comments by RGV," Reddy told news agency ANI.

The case, registered at Hazratganj police station, was registered against Varma for indecent tweets against Murmu, Lucknow's Police Commissioner DK Thakur said.

Subsequently on 24 June, in an attempt to issue a clarification, Varma said "This was said just in an earnest irony and not intended in any other way...Draupadi in Mahabharata is my favourite character but since the name is such a rarity I just remembered the associated characters and hence my expression. Not at all intended to hurt sentiments of anyone."

On June 25, the director-producer published two tweets.

In the first he said, "The tremendousness of this incredible icon the extremely honourable Drapaudi being president is that both Pandavas and Kauravas will forget their battle and together worship her and then Mahabharat will be rewritten in new India and the world will be proud of India...Jai BJP."

"Post the extensive research I did on the honourable Draupadi ji and studying the nuances in the intensity of her eyes and the depths of both her smile and facial contours, I have no doubt that she will be the greatest president ever in the whole wide world...Thank you BJP," he said in the second tweet.