The Politics Of Padmavati

A still unseen film about a mythical queen has the nation in turmoil. Where will it end?

- Suhani Singh

Push and shove and slap the filmmaker in January 2017. Vandalise the sets in Nagpur in March. Threaten to chop off the leading lady’s nose. Call to behead the two for Rs 10 crore. Attack a cinema hall in Kota. Declare a nationwide bandh. The Padmavati versus the politics drama has played out in troubling fashion with threats of Tarantinoesque violence. At the end of Kill Padmavati: Part One, it’s the bad guys who win.

The Shri Rajput Karni Sena, a minor group of Rajputs headed by Lokendra Singh Kalvi, presently a BJP supporter and son of the late Union minister Kalyan Singh Kalvi, has temporarily won the battle by forcing the producers, Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Bhansali Productions, to postpone the film’s release. The filmmakers insist Padmavati “captures Rajput valour, dignity and tradition in all its glory” and that the film “will fill every Indian with pride”. That the blow to Indian cinema comes when the Smriti Irani­led information and broadcasting ministry celebrates Indian and world cinema at the International Film Festival of India in Goa is an irony not lost on anyone.

With the Sena, Kshatriya Samaj, Bajrang Dal,Rajasthan’s royalty and more convinced that the film will distort history and hurt public sentiment, Bollywood finds its creative licence under siege. In an interview to india today, Kalvi suggests that the Centre is complicit in Padmavati’s delay. “The film’s release has been postponed because of pressure from the people as well as an active role played by the top leadership, the PM and the I&B minister,” he says.