Deepika Padukone was spotted outside Mumbai's Siddhivinayak Temple ahead of Padmaavat’s release. Dressed in a simple white suit, Deepika waded through a sea of people and cameras amid tight security at the temple.
Protests by fringe groups to ban Padmaavat refuse to die down. Even states Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh moved Supreme Court to allow the ban of the Sanjay Leelea Bhansali film. But the Supreme Court on Tuesday, 23 January, refused to modify its earlier order on Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, effectively rejecting the Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments’ plea to ban the film.
Appearing for the state of Rajasthan, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Tushar Mehta argued, “I am not saying allow me to ban the film, I had moved the apex court for certain modification of the court's earlier interim order.”
Leaders of the Shree Rajput Karni Sena also met Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday and demanded a ban on the film in the state.
"I met the Uttar Pradesh chief minister today and demanded a ban on the film Padmaavat," Karni Sena patron Lokendra Singh Kalvi told reporters after his 20-minute meeting with Adityanath in Lucknow.
People will impose ‘janta curfew’ in cinema halls in Uttar Pradesh if the movie is screened, he said.
After refusing Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s offer to watch the beleaguered Padmaavat, Rajput Karni Sena has turned around. In a media conference, Lokendra Singh Kalvi, the chief of the fringe political group which has rose to make headlines thanks to this controversy, said: “We are ready to watch the film. We never said that we will not watch the film. The filmmaker had assured us one year ago that he will go for a special screening and now he has written for the screening and we are ready for that.”
Kalvi, who listed nearly 40 different objections with regard to the movie, demanded that films on the lives of Maharana Pratap, Shivaji and other eminent personalities be made.
(With inputs from PTI and IANS)
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