Gorakhpur/New Delhi/Jaipur: The censor board has a job which it should be allowed to do, the Centre said on Tuesday even as the row over ‘Padmavati’ raged on with Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath claiming Sanjay Leela Bhansali was no less guilty than the fringe groups extending threats.
Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, who plays Alauddin Khilji in the flick, also spoke out saying he was 200 per cent with the film.
In Hyderabad, a BJP MLA T Raja Singh Lodh asked Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to not allow the screening of film. Lodh threatened that movie theatres that screen the film would be set ablaze.
In Gorakhpur, UP Chief Minister Adityanath said that filmmaker Bhansali was no less guilty than those giving threats to the movie’s crew. He alleged that Bhansali was “habitual of playing with public sentiments”.
There have been several threats by various fringe groups against Bhansali, actress Deepika Padukone over the alleged “distortion” of history in the period drama.
“If there is any action, it will be against both the sides”, the priest-turned-politician said, as he attacked Bhansali. No one has the right to take the law into own hands whether it is Sanjay Leela Bhansali or anyone else, Adityanath said.
“I feel that if those issuing threats are guilty, Bhansali is no less guilty,” he told reporters.
Adityanath’s Rajasthan counterpart Vasundhara Raje, meanwhile, again said that the film would not be allowed to screened in her state, unless the “necessary” changes as suggested to the Centre were made.
Union Information and Broadcasting minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, however, suggested that the censor board should be allowed to do its job.
“The CBFC has been formed for a purpose. Let itn do its job,” the minister said responding to a volley of questions by reporters. Another senior Union minister, Birender Singh, said that those opposing ‘Padmavati’ should first watch the film.
