Censor board invites Mewar royal family to help certify Padmavati
The censor board has asked the erstwhile Mewar royal family to join a panel to help it certify Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Padmavati, that has stoked Rajput anger for allegedly portraying the queen in “poor light”.
Prasoon Joshi, the chief of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), called Vishvaraj Singh of the
Mewar royal family on Thursday with the request. Singh told HT on Friday that he has written to the CBFC seeking clarifications on certain aspects of the film that stars Deepika Padukone as queen Padmini, considered by Rajputs as a symbol of the community’s tradition of putting honour above everything else.
A section of historians, however, doubt the existence of the queen and say she is a fictional character first portrayed in a 16th-century poem as having committed jauhar, the medieval practice in which female royals walked into funeral fires to embrace death over the dishonour of being taken captive.
Rajput groups had staged violent protests, allegedly over rumours that Bhansali included a romantic scene between the queen and Allauddin Khilji, the Delhi emperor who attacked Mewar’s capital Chittorgarh.
Vishvaraj Singh said he has written a letter to Joshi saying he will be able to accept or decline the offer only after some clarifica-
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