NEXT ON PADMAVATI: STATUE IN UDAIPUR

9FT STRUCTURE WILL SHOW THE QUEEN IN ACT OF JAUHAR

With assembly elections due next year, the Rajasthan government is set to install a nine feet-high statue of Rajput queen Padmini in Udaipur, weeks after violent protests stalled the release of a film on the subject.

The statue of Padmini, or Padmavati, will show the queen performing Jauhar, a Rajput practice of self-immolation by women to avoid dishonour at the hands of enemies, Udaipur mayor Chandra Singh told Hindustan Times.

Padmini’s statue will be put up along with other heroes and freedom fighters from the Rajput, OBC and tribal communities who hail from the Mewar region. “The contract for the statues has been given to a firm in Jaipur and the statues will be ready in three months,” said Singh.

The state has been rocked by protests by caste groups such as the Shri Rajput Karni Sena, who issued death threats to the actors and director of movie Padmavati, forcing the producers to defer its release. The protesters say the film dishonours the queen by depicting romance between Padmavati and Muslim emperor Alauddin Khilji. The filmmakers have denied all charges while historians are divided over whether Padmavati ever existed.

A year ago, the Udaipur municipal corporation had floated the idea of installing nine statues of heroes and freedom fighters from Mewar at traffic intersections — each nine-feethigh with a four feet high pedestal and a weight of 1,300 kg. The total cost of each statue is ₹1 crore.

Sources said after the public outcry over the film, state home minister Gulab Chand Kataria, who belongs to Udaipur, has asked for the work to be speeded up. “We want to honour Mewar’s heroes…the contract was given a year ago. But work got delayed due to a court case against the installation of the statues. Six months were wasted in the legal battle which we finally won,” Singh told Hindustan Times.

The statues commissioned were of Padmini, Rana Sanga, Rana Kumbha, Bappa Rawal, Rana Hamir, Raj Singh — all rulers of Mewar — two freedom fighters from the OBC community, Vjay Singh Pathik and Kesari Singh Bareth, and tribal leader Gobind Guru.

THE STATUE WILL SHOW THE QUEEN PERFORMING JAUHAR, A PRACTICE OF SELFIMMOLATION BY WOMEN TO AVOID DISHONOUR AT THE HANDS OF ENEMIES