Sushant removes surname from Twitter to protest against Padmavati slapgate

Mumbai: Sanjay Leela Bhansali has received widespread support from within his fraternity, after he got manhandled by members of the Rajput Karni Sena, citing distortion of history on his upcoming film, 'Padmavati'.

Whiel the industry has been calling for unity, Sushant Singh Rajput has also reacted to the fiasco, in his own way.

The actor, a Rajput himself, has taken his surname off his Twitter profile, expressing solidarity with the wronged director.

Sushant also urged people to drop their obsession with caste discrimination.

Earlier, the director's team had sent out an official statement on his behalf.

"Sanjay Leela Bhansali has shot two films in Jaipur and despite his love for Rajasthan, for the safety of his crew, we have decided to stop the shoot and leave the city post the shocking incident where miscreants damaged property and misbehaved with the crew on the shoot of 'Padmavati'. SLB had directed the opera 'Padmavati' to packed houses in Paris and earned worldwide praise for it. He was inspired by the beautiful and courageous queen and is making a feature film on the story. We clarify that there is no dream sequence or any objectionable scene between Rani Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji. We have been carefully researching and making the film. In spite of this, the attack on the shoot and crew was uncalled for and was extremely damaging to the image of the beautiful city of Jaipur. We are grateful to the authorities at Jaipur who responded promptly and limited the damage on shoot. We are confident that Mewar will be proud of the film made on their revered queen. We do not want to hurt any sentiments and would appreciate if the local people support us in making this film and making their queen revered by the world," reads the statement.

"We had warned the filmmaker against presenting wrong facts. When we came to know about the shooting, we gathered there and protested," district president of Karni Sena Narayan Singh had said.

"The incident that took place yesterday on the sets of Padmavati is shocking; Sanjay Leela Bhansali is a veteran with an acclaimed body of work. We stand by him and our film which is a celebration of the Rani and what she represented. We truly don't wish to hurt the sentiments of any person or community. We didn’t expect this," said Ajit Andhare, COO of Viacom18 Motion Pictures.

'Padmavati' is set for a Diwali 2017 release.