Protestors destroy 'Padmavati' rangoli in Surat

A video showing a group of protestors destroying a rangoli of a poster of the film Padmavati showing Deepika Padukone as Padmavati in Surat Mall is gaining traction on social media.

The video shows a group of men shouting "Bharat mata ki jai", "Jai Sri Ram" and "Bhansali murdabaad" and destroying the rangoli.

"I had begun making the rangoli on Friday and in 48 hours, I had completed only about half of the picture. However, on Sunday evening, a group of about 100 men came into the mall and spoiled my work. They also destroyed my equipment," Karan Jariwala, the 19-year-old artist, told DH.

"Thankfully, I was not there because on the phone they sounded very angry. Things would have turned ugly if I were around," he said.

Karan, who calls himself a model artist, writer, director, actor and many other things on his social media profile, is currently a second-year student of Ayurvedic medicine.

He said that he had decided to do the rangoli of Deepika as he was a "big fan" of the actor.
He claims to not know that the rangoli he was making was that of Padmavati.

"I had googled 'wallpaper of Deepika Padukone' and I liked this picture, so I began making the rangoli after the mall managers approached me," Karan said, adding that his rangoli was not part of the promotion for the forthcoming movie, but was done simply in the Diwali spirit.

Though Karan claims that there were 100 men, the video seen on social media showed a group of about 15-20 men shouting slogans and destroying the rangoli. “They were from a particular community who claimed that their feelings were hurt," he said.

The mall managers have filed an FIR with police. In the past, members of Karni Sena in Rajasthan have resorted to burning posters of the movie and had even disrupted the movie's shooting.

As for Karan, he has again begun work at the same place. Though it is also a rangoli of Deepika, he is not painting her as Padmavati.