Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

On Sunday, a large number of members from the film fraternity and the people from the entertainment industry gathered in Mumbai just to express their support for the Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming Indian period drama ‘Padmavati‘. The whole film fraternity question the status of freedom of speech and the expression’s in India’s democracy when the caste group like Karni Sena are constantly threatening the filmmaker and the travel nationwide to stop the release of the movie ‘Padmavati’.

The protest started with the National Anthem and that protest started with the memory of the victims of 26/11 terrorist attack as Sunday was the 9th anniversary. The Ashoke Pandit, the Indian Films and TV Directors Association (IFTDA), he says while addressing the protestors and the media that all the members of the film  industry are sensible enough to portray their history and culture in a sensible way and the basic right to all the citizen of a democratic country is to express thoughts freely.

Moreover, he says that how the constitutional bodies threaten top behead the filmmaker and to cut the nose of an actress? He asked that is this even a democracy? They really want to see that how much audacity they can show. Such threats are creating the questions on the livelihood of those junior artistes, carpenters, lightmen and along with many other people who are associated with the movie ‘Padmavati’. He urges to the government just to step into this matter to control the situation and protest their right to freedom.

There are various other union groups like the Movie Stunt Artistes Association, Mahila Kalakar Sangh, the Junior Aristes’ Association along with the many others was present there at the main entrance of the Film City where all the union members put off the lights on the sets and they have stopped shooting as a symbol of solidarity with the upcoming movie ‘Padmavati’.

The Secretary of Association of Voice Artistic, Himanshu Bhatt said that he knows the director Sanjay Leela Bhansali from many years because they all started working together as a professional from his debut movie ‘Khamoshi’ and they all continued till the movie ‘Devdas’. he is very well aware of his artistic responsibility better than those people who are protesting against his movie ‘Padmavati’, and they are protesting without even watching the movie. The protestors did not watch the single frame of the movie.

He says that he can not believe that the movie project any character or any culture in such an insensitive manner to hurt anyone. For the movies, they have the Central Board of Film Certification to decide what the movie is suitable for the audience or not. The groups like Karni Sena cannot just attack the basic rights to freedom of expression. He says that the film release and the citizen or appreciate in a civilized manner.

Legendary actor Pawan Malhotra was also present at the support event and he said that the situation was alarming for the nation, going beyond the film’s release. There are various incidents that are happening regarding the release of the movie ‘Padmavati’ and it is happening in the worrisome because they are living in a country where the freedom of expression is controlled by a group of people.

They are the one who will decide all the norms that what to wear, what to eat, how to celebrate a festival and what are the subjects of a filmmaker can a film on and the list is never-ending. Moreover, he asked that how he can overpower the rights of the Central Board of Film Certification to decide on a movie? How can they overpower the Constitution of India to decide on our basic right to freedom?

The movie ‘Padmavati’ is an upcoming Indian period drama. The movie which is directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and jointly produced by Bhansali and Viacom 18 Motion Pictures. The movie features Deepika Padukone in the title role as Rani Padmini, alongside Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji,  Shahid Kapoor as MaharajaRawal Ratan Singh, Jim Sarbh, and Aditi Rao Hydari.