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Sanjay Leela Bhansali (born 24 February 1963) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter, and music director. One of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers in Indian cinema. Bhansali has been the recipient of multiple awards, including four National Film Awards and ten Filmfare Awards. In 2015, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award. In 2015 Bhansali successfully helmed another epic historical romance, Bijarao Mastani, which also featuring Ms. Padukone as the central female figure.
Deepika Padukone, a stunning beauty in the mold of mid century Hollywood seductress Ava Gardner, won the Filmfare Award for best female debut at the tender age of 21 for her dual role opposite Shah Rukh Khan in the Bollywood blockbuster "Om Shanti Om", 2007. As of 2017 she is the highest paid actress in India.
The controversy bordering on hysteria currently raging around the film, due for nationwide release on January 25, stems from claims by various nationalist groups that it distorts the History of Rajasthan in a way which is highly offensive to local pride. The crux of the issue: Padmavati, an actual historical figure, was a 13th century Rajput queen who chose death in the flames with all her retainers rather than enter into an unwanted marriage of political convenience with a Moghul Sultan. Bhansali, claim his Rajput detractors, has turned this into a mushy romance which is an insult to Rajasthani national Pride.
Bring me the head of Leela Bhansali
Suralpal Amu, chief media coordinator of the Hindu extremist party BJP, has offered a reward of Rs 20 crore for "beheading" the actress and director Sanjay Leela Bhansali for "wrongly implying a romantic relationship between Rani Padmini also known as Padmavati, and Emperor Alauddin Khilji, the sultan of Delhi. "We do not want to take the law in our hands but we will not forgive anyone who tries to spoil the image of Rajput kings and queens".
After being assailed with death threats over her film Padmavati, actress Deepika Padukone says she would like to feel "safer and more protected" at this point of time. Police are now providing protection for her entire family, also threatened, at their home in Bangalore.
Director Bhansali's position is that any liberties he may have taken with accepted history are not intended to offend anyone and that his film is essentially a work of silver screen fiction only loosely based on historical fact. It is almost as if the state of Georgia had tried to ban Gone With The Wind in 1939 on the grounds that the love story between Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh was an insult to exalted Confederate History
Padmavati was originally scheduled for a December 2017 release but was provisionally banned due to the protests raised against it. A national board of review finally agreed to release if the title were slightly modified by dropping the final 'i, (to endorse fictionality!) and a handful of other cosmetic changes. With these conditions met PADMAVAT was rescheduled for release on January 25, a major national holiday weekend and prime film release date. However, four Indian provinces decided to impose their own local bans. These regional bans were overturned by the Indian Supreme Court (SC) in the name of Freedom of Expression. India, after all, prides itself in being "the world's largest democracy" --in which freedom of speech and artistic expression is sacrosanct.
As release date approaches with open threats of violence at any theaters which dare to show the film, Jaipur theater owners are shying away from distribution. A Times of Indian report sums it up as follows; "Had there been no controversy relating to Padmavat it would have earned at least 12 crores from Rajasthan, which is the fifth largest film territory in terms if film business in India". Note: One Crore rupees = .appr. $160,000 USD ~ 12 Crore, approx, two million USD.
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