The ongoing tussle between the Karni Sena and the makers of upcoming historical drama ‘Padmavati’ took a new turn today as Bhansali Productions, makers of the movie, wrote to the Rajput organisation for truce.
The latter, however, seems to be in no mood to dilute their stands and wrote back to the makers with a set of demands to be followed.
The director of the film - Sanjay Leela Bhansali - clarified to the Karni Sena that there was no love sequence between the characters of Rani Padmavati and Allauddin Khilji, as he sought to complete his film peacefully.
"Sanjay Leela Bhansali has shot two films in Jaipur and despite his love for Rajasthan, for the safety of his crew, we have decided to leave the city post the shocking incident where miscreants damaged property and misbehaved with the crew on the shoot of 'Padmavati'," said an official statement issued on behalf of Bhansali.
"SLB had directed the opera 'Padmavati' to packed houses in Paris and earned worldwide praise for it. He was inspired by the beautiful and courageous queen and is making a feature film on the story."
"We clarify that there is no dream sequence or any objectionable scene between Rani Padmavati and Allauddin Khilji. We have been carefully researching and making the film... The attack on the shoot and crew was uncalled for and was extremely damaging to the image of the beautiful city of Jaipur," the statement added.
The statement also mentioned that the entire crew of 'Padmavati' is "grateful to the authorities at Jaipur who responded promptly and limited the damage.”
"We are confident that Mewar will be proud of the film made on their revered queen. We do not want to hurt any sentiments and would appreciate if the local people support us in making this film and making their queen revered by the world," the statement read.
The activists of the Rajput organisation reverted back to SLB’s request with some terms and conditions.
After Bhansali assured of no love scenes, the Karni Sena demanded that there should be no distortion of any historical facts regarding the three main characters – Padmavati, Allauddin Khilji and Rana Ratan Singh.
The condition not only applies to ‘Padmavati’ but all other movies that Bhansali would make in future based on history.
The Karni Sena also want SLB to seek references from best historians of a state when making historical film.
They also went forward with a demand to change the title of the film.
"We want the name to be changed, we just want to tell Bhansali to agree to our demands and ensure that sentiments of the Rajput community is not hurt due to the film," said Makrana of the Karni Sena.
“History should not be distorted, wrong is wrong. We did not do anything (on the sets of Padmavati). The security personnel fired on us and then we reacted.”
Bhansali Productions, however, stated that no such demand of a name change has been put forth by them as yet.
On Friday, the activists entered the Jaigarh Fort and assaulted Bhansali, slapped him and tore up his shirt. They even misbehaved with the crew and criticised the National Award-winning director for 'distorting' history in the film about the medieval-era Delhi ruler Alauddin Khilji, who fell in love with Rajput queen Padmavati.
They damaged cameras and other equipment, forcing Bhansali to stop shooting. The film stars Shahid Kapoor, Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in leading roles.
