Rally against 'Padmavati' movie in B'luru tomorrow

Bengaluru: Bengaluru chapter of Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena is going to hold a 'Swabhimaan Padyaatra', a protest rally condemning the attempt to distort history in the upcoming Bollywood movie 'Padmavati.'

Bhanwar Singh, president, Bengaluru unit president Sena, told reporters on Monday that various organisations such as Rajput Samaj Karnataka, Akhil Bharatiya Ekta Manch, Maharana Pratap Navayuvak Mandal, Rajput Parishad, Rajput Sabha, Kshatriya Mahasabha and others will participate in the rally to register their protest.

The protest rally, which will begin at Town Hall around 10 am on Wednesday, will culminate at Freedom Park and turn into a sit-in dharna, where leaders and elders from the community will address the gathering, Singh added.

The rally will be attended by Shri Pratap Puriji, seer of Taratara Mutt Rajasthan, Sukhdev Singh Gogamedi, national president of Shri Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena, Udaykumar Singh, founder of Akhil Bharatiya Ekta Manch and leaders of various other organisations, he stated

Directed and produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, the movie is an attempt to tarnish the rich heritage and culture of the erstwhile Rajputana, he said.

Sati Padmavati, on whose life the movie is based, is revered as goddess in many parts of Rajasthan. Queen Padmavati of Chittorgarh made the supreme sacrifice along with 16,000 other women for dignity and honour. Any malice attempt to demean the sacrifice of the brave women of Mewar will not be tolerated by the Rajput community and the Hindus at large, he added.

"Through the protest, our objective is to urge the Central and State governments to direct the filmmaker to hold a pre-release screening of the movie for our representatives to ensure that Sanjay Leela Bhansali hasn't used his iniquitous imagination in the garb of artistic freedom to hurt the religious sentiments of crores of Hindus," Singh added.