Controversial films sparks death threats
India ruling party member offers bounty for director, star
NEW DELHI — A member of India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party has offered a reward of about $ 1.5 million to anyone who beheads the lead actress and the director of the yet- to- be released Bollywood film Padmavati over its alleged handling of the relationship between a Hindu queen and a Muslim ruler.
Suraj Pal Amu, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from the northern state of Haryana, offered the bounty against actress Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Sunday. The film’s producers postponed the release of the film, which was set to be in theatres Dec. 1, the same day. Speaking at a public rally reported by several local news outlets, Amu also added the film would not be allowed to release at all.
Padmavati is based on a 16thcentury Sufi epic poem, Padmavat, a fictional account of a brave and beautiful Rajput queen who chose to kill herself rather than be captured by the Muslim sultan of Delhi, Allaudin Khilji. Over centuries of its retelling, the epic has come to be seen as history, even though there is little historical evidence.
Padukone plays the role of Padmini, the legendary queen who committed “jauhar,” the medieval Rajput practice in which women of royal households walked into funeral fires to embrace death over the dishonour of being taken captive.
Padmavati has been in trouble since the beginning of the year, with fringe groups in the western state of Rajasthan attacking the film’s set, threatening to burn down theatres that show it and even physically attacking Bhansali in January.
Most of the anger at the film appears to stem from allegations that Bhansali has distorted history by filming a romantic dream sequence between the main protagonists of the film. Bhansali has denied the allegations.
Earlier this month, the head of the Rajput Karni Sena in Rajasthan said Padukone should have her nose cut — a symbol of public humiliation — for being part of a film that allegedly insulted the famed queen.
India’s 1.3 billion- strong democracy is the largest in the world, but despite significant economic progress over the last few decades its politics are held hostage by a complex mix of religion and caste. Books and movies have found themselves at the receiving end of threats of violence and bans because they either offend one religious or caste group, or are deemed offensive to Indian culture in general.