PADMAAVAT PROTESTS SPREAD
Karni Sena members block traffic on Sona Road in Gurgaon to protest against the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat, on Sunday. In Gujarat, bus services were suspended in northern part of the state after protests by Rajput community members against film.
GURGAON: Residents from Sohna and MG Road were caught up in a snarl for over half-an-hour on Sunday after hundreds of members of Shri Rajput Karni Sena held up traffic and shouted slogans seeking a ban on the screening of filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhanshali’s upcoming release Padmaavat in Gurgaon’s movie theatres.
As members of the fringe group massed on the roads, traffic came to a crawl outside popular city malls, which have multiplexes. The movie is set to release on January 25.
Several residents, who had taken their families to malls and other city hot spots for a weekend outing, had to return midway through their journey after they spotted a band of slogan-shouting band of youths on bikes. Armed with sticks, they blocked roads and held up traffic. The protest continued till 3pm. The fringe group members threatened to return with more numbers on January 25.
The members claimed factual inaccuracies in the movie and said that the romance between Alauddin Khilji, the ruler of the Khilji dynasty, and Rani Padmavati, as allegedly portrayed in the movie, never happened.
Jitender Singh Chauhan, who introduced himself as the national executive member of Shri Rajput Karni Sena, warned owners and operators of movie theatres and multiplexes on MG Road and Sohna Road against screening the movie. He said that while they held a peaceful protest on Sunday, things could turn grim if their demand isn’t met.
Arun Chauhan, a representative of the Shri Rajput Karni Sena a group led by Lokendra Kalvi in Gurgaon, claimed that the protest was organised by their faction.