Mamata Banerjee | Photo Credit: Indiatimes

Kolkata: Weighing in on the ongoing controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movie ‘Padmavati’, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday called the row as “unfortunate” and added that she condemned the “super emergency” revolving around this matter.

Calling it an attack on the freedom of expression in the country, Banerjee said, "The Padmavati controversy is not only unfortunate but also a calculated plan of a political party to destroy the freedom to express ourselves. We condemn this super emergency. All in the film industry must come together and protest in one voice,"

Padmavati blocked: After Madhya Pradesh, Punjab also bans Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film

Notably, her stand is very different to those of her counterparts in the states of Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

While Punjab and Haryana have declared that they would not allow the movie, which “distorts history, to be released in their states, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Sunday had announced that he would not let the Deepika Padukone-starrer to be released in the state “without necessary cuts”.

Padmavati row: Fringe group offers bounty of 1 crore to burn Deepika Padukone alive

Supporting the protests, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh told reporters on Monday, “Nobody will accept distortion of history and those who are protesting are rightly doing so”.

Even Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje wrote to the Minister of Information and Broadcasting Smriti Irani on Saturday, urging her to ensure that the film is not released without relevant cuts.

On Sunday, amid threats and protests, the producers of the movie, which features Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, decided to defer the release date of the movie from December 1.

A statement by Viacom18 Company, the producers, said that they had faith that they would soon be able to obtain the requisite clearances to release the film and announce the revised release date of the film “in due course”.

The controversy over the movie, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, has taken an ugly turn after members of the Rajput Karni Sena, a fringe outfit in Rajasthan, threatened to “cut off Padukone’s nose and behead Bhansali” if the film released.

In fact, Haryana's BJP Chief Media Coordinator on Sunday announced a bounty of Rs 10 crore on Bhansali’s head, congratulated the man from Meerut who had announced the Rs 5 crore bounty and stated that he will quit the party if need be to register his protest against Padmavati.

The Karni Sena alleges that the film, based on the legend of Rani Padmini or Padmavati, the queen of Chittorgarh, compromises on the honour of the Rajput queen.