Caving in to pressure wrought about by activists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a city multiplex on Friday cancelled five scheduled shows of director-producer Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s historical pageant Bajirao Mastani.

The management of multiplex City Pride nixed all shows of the Bhansali film after hundreds of BJP workers protested vehemently against the screening of the historical movie, which has been embroiled in a raging controversy for its factual inaccuracies and gross distortion of history.

“The film is an insult to the person of Peshwa Bajirao I and the song Pingaa Pingaa is offensive to Marathi culture and degrading to a Marathi lady,” said BJP's Pune city vice-president Jayant Bhave.

Mr. Bhave claimed the film utterly trivialized history by giving scant importance to the weighty political matters of its day and turning the picture into a ludicrous soap opera replete with tasteless song-and-dance numbers.

“The Peshwa never had the time to fiddle with his hair locks and dance in public as depicted in the film. Similarly, the depiction of his wife, Kashibai portrayed by actress Priyanka Chopra is in poor taste,” Mr. Bhave said, demanding that the filmmakers either delete objectionable scenes or change the name of the film.

Earlier, a city-based resident, demanding a ban on the film, had filed a case against Mr. Bhansali, the film’s director-producer as well cast members, actresses Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone who essay the roles of Kashibai, the Peshwa’s first wife and that of Mastani respectively, alleging that filmmakers had tweaked ‘facts’ under the pretext of artistic licence.

Apart from coming under fire from history buffs and purists, the descendants of the Peshwa have already taken strong objection by accusing Mr. Bhansali of ‘gross misrepresentation’.

Effigies of Mr. Bhansali have been burnt at the historical Shaniwar Wada fort and a Facebook page, urging a ban on the film has been created and has received several ‘likes’.