Lucknow: With the protests against the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period film ‘Padmaavat’ turning violent in several parts of the state, Karna Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi met Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Monday and said that the stir would only stop if the film’s release is stopped.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Kalvi said that maintaining law and order situation is the government’s job, his concern is to only stop the film from hitting theatres.
“We respect the Supreme Court, but this movie should have been banned. We met CM Yogi and renewed our appeal to ban the film from releasing. He said his government cannot stop the release after Supreme Court’s order. We also told him about our objections to the film,” he said.
He said that if the filmmaker is worried about the production cost, the Rajput organisation is ready to collect donations to compensate him. “If the cost of the movie is 200 crore rupees, we will collect it by donation. But certainly we cannot allow the movie to release on this ground. The people will decide who they actually support, Padmavati or Khilji. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka government are approaching Court, we may also take the legal way in this matter,” he added.
Kalvi confirmed that he got an invitation from Bhansali for a special screening of the movie two days ago, but said it should have come much earlier. "We never said we will not watch the movie. We got the invitation now. It was promised to us by the filmmaker almost a year ago,” he said.
On Monday, protesters ransacked two cinema halls in the city, while in Sultanpur, members of student wing of Akhil Bhartiya Kshatriya Mahasabha burnt an effigy of Bhansali in front of the district magistrate’s office. The home town of UP CM Yogi Adityanath, Gorakhpur, also witnessed violent protests by members of the Kshatriya Community.
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