Haryana government bans release of Padmaavat

The Manohar Lal Khattar government in Haryana has banned the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's controversial film Padmaavat, Health Minister Anil Vij said on Tuesday.

Vij said a decision to this effect was taken at a meeting of the state Cabinet keeping in view the sentiments of a large number of people who felt that historical facts had been "distorted" in the period drama.

The minister said that in the previous Cabinet meeting too he had demanded a ban on the film.

"In the last cabinet meeting, I had raised the issue of banning the film because of distortion of historic facts by the filmmaker," Vij said.

In that meeting, the chief minister had assured that when the censor board clears the film, a decision will be taken by the government, he added.

"In today's Cabinet meeting, I again raised the issue and said the film should be banned in Haryana keeping in view the law and order situation of the state as the film was facing stiff opposition from various quarters," Vij told reporters in Chandigarh after the meeting.

He said the entire Cabinet, which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Khattar, supported him after which a decision was taken to ban the release of the film in Haryana.

"Film Padmavati/Padmavat banned in Haryana (sic) ," the senior cabinet minister had tweeted earlier.

Significantly, the film, which stars Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh in lead roles, had faced opposition from various quarters including from the Rajput community.

Vij had earlier said that he would not allow the movie to be screened in the state.

He had alleged that Bhansali had wrongly presented historical facts in the movie to "defame" the image of Rani Padmavati which had hurt the sentiments of lakhs of people.

"Rani Padmavati is the symbol of Indian women' pride. The character assassination of Padmavati will not be tolerated at any level," he had said earlier. Industry and Commerce Minister in the Khattar cabinet, Vipul Goel had also expressed concerns over the film.

The film, mired in controversy over its plot line, had been given the go-ahead by the Central Board of Film Certification, which asked the makers to change the title from Padmavati to Padmaavat and suggested some other modifications.

The movie is set for release on January 25.