A rangoli of a poster from Sanjay Leela Bhansali's upcoming historical drama 'Padmavati' starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh, was rubbed out by a gang of protestors at a shopping mall in Surat, Gujarat, tweeted the artist Karan K.
It had taken the artist 48 hours to create the rangoli at a shopping mall in Surat which was ruined in seconds.
Karan K shared before and after pictures of the rangoli. He also tweeted a picture of his letter addressed to the mall management by the staff saying that the 'rangoli design of Padmavati will not be carried out in future.'
Meanwhile, actor Deepika too reacted about it: “Absolutely heart breaking to see the recent attack on artist Karan and his artwork!disgusting and appalling to say the least!,” she wrote in a tweet. “Who are these people?Who is responsible for their actions?For how long are we going to let this go on?... Allow them to take law into their own hands and attack our freedom and right to individual expression time and again!?,” she added.
The actor tagged Information and Broadcasting minister Smriti Irani in her tweets.
Not the first controversy for Bhansali's 'Padmavati'
In September this year, Shri Rajput Karni Sena, a Rajput organisation, on Saturday burnt posters of the film in front of Rajmandir Cinema Hall and shouted slogans against Bhansali.
IANS quoted Narain Singh Divrala, district president Jaipur of the Shri Rajpur Karni Sena as saying, "While shooting in Jaipur Bhansali had promised to show the film to us and historians before releasing it. But since then no one has contacted us, nor has the film been shown to us,"
He added that they would not allow the film to be released unless their condition was fulfilled.
In January, activists of the Shree Rajput Karni Sena had protested, manhandled and misbehaved with the crew of 'Padmavati' claiming that he was distorting historical facts in the movie.
Bhansali was also forced to stop shooting for a period of time as the group had also damaged some cameras and other equipment.
The Karni Sena claimed that they have got a big library and that in no book is it written that Alauddin Khilji, a powerful ruler of the Khilji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate in 13th-14th century, fell in love with Padmavati or that he was her lover.
In March, some miscreants broke the mirrors in Padmini Mahal (palace) in Chittorgarh Fort where Ala-ud-din Khilji is believed to have seen Rani Padmavati or Padmini. Shri Rajput Karni Sena claims that the mirror was invented years after Padmavati lived and therefore it is a completely untrue story.
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati is the story of Chittor's Rani Padmini played by Deepika Padukone, who performed jauhar (a custom of mass immolation to avoid capture, enslavement and rape by foreign invaders) with several other Rajput women after Alauddin Khilji (played by Shahid Kapoor) invaded their fort. Shahid Kapoor plays Rani Padmini's husband Ratan Singh in the film.
Padmavati releases on December 1.
(With IANS inputs)