Now, Cong seeks ban on Padmavati release

After Bharatiya Janata Party in poll-bound Gujarat, the Congress also has now raised its voice against the release of movie Padmavati.

"With elections around the corner, a minister from the BJP has written to the Election Commission to ban the release of Padmavati till elections. It is your government, write to the prime minister. Also just by postponing the release will not assuage feelings of a community. We demand that if there has been a distortion of history as claimed, the movie should not be released at all," Shaktisinh Gohil, senior Congress leader, told media persons.

He said before arriving at any decision, there should be a special screening of the movie for the select community leaders and cuts be made keeping in mind their feelings.

Earlier, members of the Kshatriya and Rajput communities from 17 districts met the senior members of the state government seeking a ban on the release of the movie in the state. The movie, starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh is set for a global release on December 1.

In the past, members of Karni Sena in Rajasthan have resorted to burning posters of the movie and had even disrupted shooting of the movie by Sanjay Leela Bhansali in Jaipur.

In Gujarat, a group of protesters had stormed into a mall in Surat in mid-October and destroyed a rangoli of actress Deepika Padukone's Padmavati poster drawn by a young local artist.

On Wednesday, the BJP had written a letter to the poll panel, seeking a ban on the release of the movie till the elections are complete in the state. The BJP had claimed that the movie hurts the sentiments of Kshatriya and Rajput communities and that it depicts the history wrong.