Padmaavat ban off, but fringe vows to stall film
‘States must maintain law & order during screening’
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court stayed on Thursday orders by four states banning controversial Bollywood movie Padmaavat, paving the way for a nationwide release of the period drama that is facing violent protests over the depiction of a legendary Rajput queen.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra also restrained other states from banning the film and asked state governments to provide security to the film’s cast and crew, who are facing threats of death and violence.
“Creative content is an inseparable aspect of Article 19 of the Constitution (fundamental right to speech). Expression of ideas through the medium of cinema is a public right,” the bench said.
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan had banned Padmaavat after protests by Rajput caste groups. It is slated for release on January 25.
Still, Padmaavat’s troubles might not be over.
At least one state, Haryana, indicated that it would appeal the SC decision and another, Madhya Pradesh, said the film will remain banned as the government studies the apex court order. Rajput caste groups, led by the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, also called for a “janta (public) curfew” on January 25 and vandalised a cinema in north Bihar’s Muzaffarpur.
Earlier in the day, the CJI said the ban had shocked the court’s “A film may bomb at the box office or people may choose not to watch it, but states cannot use (their) machinery to prohibit (a) movie’s exhibition.”
The top court didn’t entertain additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta’s request to wait till the states responded and told the states that it was their “duty and obligation to maintain law and order”.
“Once Parliament has conferred the responsibility and power on a statutory board and the board has certified the film, non-exhibition of the film by states is contrary to statutory provisions,” the SC said.
Based on a 16th-century Sufi poem, the movie stars Deepika Padukone as queen Padmini, or Padmavati, while Ranveer Singh plays Muslim emperor Alauddin Khilji.
Protesters are upset over a rumoured romantic scene, presumably a dream sequence, between Padukone and Singh , a charge denied by the director Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
Historians are divided on whether the queen existed.
Last week, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) cleared the film after five modifications and a change in name, from Padmavati to Padmaavat. But protests have raged on with fringe groups warning that they wouldn’t let the film be shown anywhere in India.
That stand hasn’t changed after the verdict.
“Our stand remains the same and we want a nationwide ban on the film… if the movie is released, then Rajput community will be out on the streets,” Karni Sena president Mahipal Singh Makrana said in Jaipur.
In Ujjain, Sena founder Lokendra Singh Kalvi urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to scrap the film’s clearance.
Manjushri Shaktawat, president of the Jauhar Shatrani Manch, a group representing Rajput women in Chittorgarh, said it would take out a rally on January 21 and take an oath for performing ‘Jauhar’ (self-immolation) on January 24. In Haryana, health minister Anil Vij said he would get the verdict examined and appeal against it if there was a provision to do so. The Rajasthan government said it will study the order and then decide. “We respect the Supreme Court’s decision,” said home minister Gulab Chand Kataria.
Madhya Pradesh home minister Bhupendra Singh said the film continued to remain banned in the state and the government would take its next step after studying the verdict.
Interestingly, the state government has not issued any official order banning the film so far, although chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said it would be. Earlier in the day in the Supreme Court, the CJI disagreed with Mehta’s contention that the state could take action if there is a rumour against a majority community. “If you go by this, 60% of literature, even classical literature of India cannot be read today,” he added. Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Viacom 18 and Bhansali, argued that states had no right to control content. “This is lawlessness. States have no right to control content. Today, the executive is throwing the CBFC certificate in the dustbin. It is a constitutional breakdown,” the senior counsel said. “They must have resorted to the ban due to the law and order problems. States may have their own reasons. CBFC does not have the wherewithal to find out about the law and order problem it might lead to,” Mehta submitted. The ASG said one cannot distort history. “We can’t let someone show Mahatma Gandhi sipping whisky,” said Mehta. But Salve quipped: “That’s not even distortion of history.” He then added that in the West, they could even make “Jesus Christ Super Star”, a movie based on a rock opera that retells the story of Jesus Christ Mehta had a pragmatic response to this: “Let us go by Indian standards.”