Padmavati: Rs 5 crores bounty on Deepika, Bhansali's heads, announce outfits

Mumbai: Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Padmavati’ is seeing one of the most violent and unprecedented opposition seen by a film in recent times, which is getting uglier day by day.

After the most vocal group Rajput Karni Sena, which had attacked Bhansali in Jaipur and vandalised a theatre in Noida few days ago, now threatening to harm the lead actress Deepika Padukone by referring to the nose chopping of ‘Surpanakha’, few more shocking threats have been issued by outfits around the country.

Another prominent opposer, Meerut-based Sarv Bhahmin Mahasabha, had shot off a petition with blood to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and announced a bounty of Rs five crores on Bhansali's head.

And now, a Thakur leader from the city has also included the lead actress Deepika Padukone’s name in a gross threat.

“Anyone who brings the head of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone will be rewarded with Rs 5 crore. Rani Ma Padmavati had sacrificed her life with 12,000 other women in mass immolation (Jauhar), and Bhansali has raised a question on her courage by showing her in bad light in his film. This is unacceptable. Either both of them should leave the country or get ready to be beheaded,” Thakur Abhishek Som, national president of Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Yuva Mahasabha, was quoted as saying by the Times of India.

Apart from this, several leaders from BJP, Congress and other outfits have demanded that the film be banned.

The Supreme Court had refused to stay the release, leaving the ball in the CBFC’s court, with the makers submitting the film to the board few days back.

The makers have also agreed to screen the film to a committee consisting of prominent leaders of some of the offended outfits.

‘Padmavati’ is scheduled to release on December 1.