Protestors of Karni Sena attempting to disrupt the shooting of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Padmavati’ by vandaliz... Read More

JAIPUR: Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was roughed up by members of a Rajput outfit at the city’s historic Jaigarh Fort on Friday. The mob comprising Karni Sena members alleged that Rajasthan’s history was distorted in “Padmavati”, the movie Bhansali was filming.

Scores of Sena protesters breached private security arrangements and stormed the fort at 12.30pm, raising slogans against Bhansali and his under-production movie. They then attempted to stop the shoot by vandalising the movie set. While the film crew and the producer’s private guards tried to stop the protesters, one protester pulled Bhansali by the hair and slapped him. “Bhansali’s private security guards formed a ring around him in order to safely escort him out of the chaos. The crew dialled the police helpline number and the Amber police reached the spot,” a police official at Amer police station said.

“The movie depicts love scenes between Rani Padmini of Chittor and Alauddin Khilji. This is an outrageous distortion of Rajasthan’s history as Rani-ji immolated herself along with the other women of the fort when they heard that Khilji was marching ahead to take over the fort,” Karni Sena state president Mahipal Makrana said, adding that “jauhar (self-immolation)” by the queen of Chittor was an act of bravery that was “well-established” in the state’s history books. “We will not allow anyone to peddle lies and cheat with the honour and dignity of idols at any cost (sic),” he added.

Outfit’s claim unfounded, says Bhansali

The protesters broke a TV screen and other equipment on the set. They alleged the the guards had fired in the air to disperse them.

Senior police officials, including deputy commissioner of police (north) Ansuhman Bhomia and additional DCP Sameer Kumar, went to the spot to pacify the protesters.

Police set up a meeting between Bhansali and the Karni Sena after the incident. “Bhansali said the Sena’s allegations were unfounded as the movie did not depict any such scene between the two. We asked Bhansali if he would like to file and FIR, but he refused,” added a senior official who was part of the meeting.

Police have arrested five protesters under CrPC Section 151 (arrest to prevent the commission of cognisable offences). According to the police, Bhansali did not complain about any incident where he was roughed up.

“He did not tell us about any such incident. He has legal permission to shoot the movie here,” DCP Bhomia told TOI.



In Video: Sanjay Leela Bhansali assaulted by fringe group in Jaipur