Deepika's costume in 'Pathaan' song objectionable: MP home minister, says some scenes need to be 'corrected'

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Wednesday took objection to actor Deepika Padukone's costume in a song of Bollywood film Pathaan and said if certain scenes are not "corrected", the government will consider what to do about its screening.

Mishra, the spokesperson of the state government, also said Padukone has been a supporter of the "Tukde Tukde gang” as seen in the JNU case.

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Mishra's statement came after a song, Besharam Rang, featuring Padukone from the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer film was released recently. He said the costumes seen in the song are prima facie "highly objectionable" and it is clearly visible that this song was filmed out of a "contaminated mentality".

“I would request to correct the scenes and her (Padukone's) costumes (in the song), otherwise whether this film should be allowed in Madhya Pradesh or not will be a question to be considered,” Mishra told reporters in Mhow in Indore district. In the same breath, he alleged "Padukone has been a supporter of the Tukde Tukde gang as seen in the JNU case".

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) often uses the "tukde-tukde gang" remark coined in the aftermath of a JNU protest in Delhi in 2016. Pathaan, a Hindi-language action thriller film, is scheduled for release on January 25, 2023.

Notably, Mishra, a senior leader of BJP in Madhya Pradesh, in October warned the makers of the Bollywood film Adipurush, based on the epic Ramayana, of legal action if scenes showing Hindu religious figures in the "wrong" way are not removed. In July this year, he directed to file an FIR (First Information Report) over a controversial poster of filmmaker Leena Manimekalai's documentary Kaali after an outrage.