Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, an online organization that aims to bring back ancient Hindu rules in India, said it “won’t tolerate” mistakes in films, referring to errors in the film Padmavati. It did not specify what action it plans to take.
Joining the protests by Rajput organizations of Rajasthan, the Samiti said it was outrageous to show good Hindu women dancing in the old times.
It said that ‘good Hindu women’ did not engage in public dancing in the old days, and therefore, showing the character of Padmavati in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s eponymous movie dancing “is outrageous and will not be tolerated.”
“In the days of yore, good women from Hindu society would not be found dancing in front of the people,” it said, adding that Padmavati was a ‘good Hindu woman’ and therefore would not have danced publicly.
“Sanjay Leela Bhansali has distorted this historical fact, and shown Rani Padmavati dancing in his movie ‘Padmavati’s’ Ghoomar song sequence,” it said.
However, Bhansali is not the only director to make the mistake. In fact, most Indian movies have scenes in which normal people are shown singing and dancing in public places like gardens, buses, historical monuments and even in foreign locations like the US and Switzerland.
In reality, it would be hard to find normal Indians singing and dancing in public places. Despite this, normal Indians have not protested such depictions by movie makers so far.
It also added that the particular dance form that the lead character in the film is engaging in was not traditionally practiced by the Rajput community, to which Padmavati belonged.
“‘Ghoomar’ is a dance art form from Rajasthan and is performed by people of a particular society. Bhansali worked on a historical movie, then why doesn’t he know that neither princesses nor queens would perform Ghoomar,” it asked.
It said thugs and villains could have been entertained by ‘item girls’ — women especially brought in for the purpose — instead of the lead character.
“So, if Bhansali wanted to showcase the Ghoomar art form, then he could have easily got someone else to perform it, why did he have to show Rani Padmavati? To show Rani Padmavati (who committed Jauhar [self immolation] to safeguard her honour) dancing is gross disrespect to her memory,” it said.
The controversy created by the protests has managed to create free publicity for the movie worth crores of rupees.
The Samiti’s spokesperson Ramesh Shinde said it has become fashionable to fill up the box office by riding on controversies.