Oppose a film with another: Director Goel on ‘Padmavati’

Mumbai, Nov 30 (IANS) Film director and author Jyotin Goel says threatening a filmmaker on a film is really horrifying and violence against someone's opinion is the end of civilization.

Asked to comment on the ongoing controversy over the film "Padmavati", the author, who along with actress Juhi Chawla on Thursday launched his book "Bheem-Destiny's Warrior", told the media: "Threatening a filmmaker or an actor for a film is horrifying.

"One can oppose a film with another film, a speech with another speech, one can get into arguments but not violence. The moment violence starts, civilization ends."

Juhi said she wanted to keep the focus on the occasion, but just mentioned: "Yesterday, I met the Maharani of Jaipur and she was saying that no matter what has been written in the book, the power of film is such that people believe them as the ultimate truth. It stays in their mind forever, generation after generation."

"Padmavati" is directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and features Deepika Padukone in the lead role, along with Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor.

The controversy started during the shooting of the film after rumour spread that the film has a dream sequence showing intimate scenes between Rajput Queen Padmavati and Sultan Alauddin Khilji played by Ranveer in the film.

Later, the controversy turned into a law and order situation when the Karni Rajput Sena started protesting across the country to ban the film, alleging distortion of Rajput history and threatened Bhansali and Deepika.