Indian director Sanjay Leela Bhansali‘s upcoming Indian period drama movie titled ‘Padmavati‘ was supposed to release it on December 1st but due to the mounting protests and the Central Board of Film Certification has refused to fast-track the movie’s certification process. Now, the recent reports say that the movie will likely to be released next year.
The makers of the movie have said that now the release date of the movie will be decided only after the movie will get the approval from the Central Board of Film Certification. The movie features Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmini, Shahid Kapoor as Maharaja Ratan Rawal Singh and Ranveer Singh as Sultan Alauddin Khilji. The movie was earlier slated to release it on December 1st.
On Sunday, the studio which is behind the movie ‘Padmavati’, Viacom18 Motion Pictures said in a statement that they are voluntarily deferring the release date of the movie and they are doing that out of a respect and regard for the law of the land and also including the Central Board of Film Certification. However, the movie will now have been pushed until next year and promotions of the movie have been now put on a hold. The new release date of the movie has been announced only after the movie will get the clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification.
The sources from the production house say that right now they are just waiting for the censor board to give the clearance and after that, they will decide the best date to release the movie. Yesterday, Prasoon Joshi, Cheif of CBFC has said that the board needs adequate time so that they can come up with a balanced decision about the movie.
Moreover, he says that the maximum time that is needed to certify the movie is 68 days and it can less also. The member of the CBFC tries to do in a month or over a month’s time but he says that the if there is a movie like ‘Padmavati’ then the one has to be very much careful to take opinions so that it can take a little bit of a time. He says that it does not means that nothing will be going to happen before 68 days. If the makers of the movie want the certification on time then they are advised that they should take this much time into consideration.
Earlier, the Board has returned the application to the makers of the movie by saying that the applications were incomplete. Now, the makers of the movie have re-applied it. Prasoon Joshi had said that the makers of the movie did not clarify that the movie is based on the historical facts or it is just a work of a fiction.
However, the sources close to the CBFC says that they have followed the normal process and once the application comes to them they will scrutinize it. However, the application which was submitted by the makers earlier was incomplete so they have returned it back. There are a no disclaimers that say that it is a work of a fiction and which is required for a movie like this.
If the makers of the movie have submitted the proper application then they would be given the date for the screening. They are having an examing committee who will be going to see the movie and they do have a historical expert for the screening of the movie and they are just following the procedure. When asked the Cheif of CBFC, Prasoon Joshi that does the new application has been scrutinized? On this, Prasoon said that till now it has not been because all these things usually take time and they are having other movies also and the movie ‘Padmavati’ is just one of them. Moreover, he says that they are having a limited staff and they just can not dump everything aside and focus only on the movie ‘Padmavati’ they can not do this. Everything will be going to take a normal time.
The demand for a ban on the movie for allegedly distorting history is slowly getting shriller. However, there are few states that have already made their positions clear by saying that they will be not allowing the movie to release and they will do so only after the changes have been made in the movie. The makers of the movie have clarified much earlier that the there is no distortion of the history and the so-called dream sequence which is between Alauddin Khilji and Rani Padmini does not even exits. There is a few media person who has seen the movie and they even said that the same but there is no avail.