While controversies before a movie release almost always benefit the movie, the kind of controversies Padmaavat got into, are probably a part of director Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s worst nightmares. Padmaavat has been in controversies right from its pre-productions days. When the shooting was on in parts of Rajasthan, it was targeted by a then-lesser-known Rajput Clique called the Karni Sena and the set was vandalised. Few crew members including the director Sanjay Leela Bhansali were roughed up. However, ‘Padmavati’ would have had a smooth sailing, had the violence and the protests ended then.
The movie was initially scheduled to release on 1st December 2017 but because of the repeated demonstrations by Karni Sena, which now had support in almost every state in North India the movie release was stalled. The Karni Sena announced that they will gather in lakhs and call for a Bharat Bandh if the movie got released. Further, they openly threatened to physically harm Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Leela Bhansali.
The effect of Karni Sena soon spilled over to neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. (Who knew Karni Sena had chapters in other states too!) The uproar in Uttar Pradesh resulted in the state government writing to the Centre saying that the release of the movie could create a law and order problem for the state. Following this, a few other important personalities joined the clamour with Rajasthan Higher and Technical Education Minister Kiran Maheshwari saying that she strongly opposes the film which deceits the ‘history of immortal valour’ and has been made purely for money and entertainment.
Amidst all this cacophony, there were also demands to ban the film from political figures of various states and even the Royals of Mewar. There were a few attempts to control and soften the situation with the Rajasthan Home Minister constituting a panel to screen the film. The panel which comprised of eminent historians was tasked to study the points which were different from history. Bhansali who continuously denied any distortion of historical facts held a special screening for journalists to get across the point that there were indeed no historical distortions. The CBFC reviewed the movie, suggested a few cuts and the change of the name.
The movie, Padmaavat after the CBFC clearance was scheduled to release on the 25th of January 2018 across India except in the states of Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand where the state governments decided to ban the film. However, the Supreme Court ordered the states to remove the ban and they had to comply.
Padmaavat got mixed reviews with people appreciating the signature Bhansali larger than life aesthetics but were disappointed with storyline. However, the hype around the movie gave it a good opening. Just when it seemed like the troubles were finally over for the film, a Facebook page joined the controversy series. A Facebook page, called ‘Jaaton Ka Adda’ went live from inside a theatre screening the film. The Facebook Page Admin live streamed the movie from a movie hall on the first day of the release itself, thereby leaking the film online. The video had over 3.5 lakh views and thousands of people had shared it.
Thus, the final (hopefully) bit of the controversy series did more harm to the film than all the other episodes. This is one of those incidents that remind us of the need to have laws governing and regulating social media. We might campaign for keeping Facebook, Twitter and other social media websites out of government regulation, but do we forget that we could be at the receiving end of it someday?