India's top court lifts ban on controversial Bollywood film

"Padmaavat" will hit screens on January 25 and is about a Hindu queen and a 14th century Muslim ruler's relationship. Several BJP-ruled states had banned it following violence by Hindu right-wing groups.

A man signs a banner during a signature campaign as part of a protest against the release of Bollywood movie "Padmavat" in Kolkata, India on November 22, 2017.
Reuters Archive

A man signs a banner during a signature campaign as part of a protest against the release of Bollywood movie "Padmavat" in Kolkata, India on November 22, 2017.

India's supreme court on Thursday removed the ban on a controversial Bollywood epic about a Hindu queen, after several states blocked its screening following violent protests and threats to film director and actors. 

"Creative freedom, freedom of speech and expression can’t be guillotined ... artistic freedom has to be protected," the court said, according to English-language TV channel News18.

Padmaavat, changed from Padmavati after protests, was initially due to hit screens in December. 

But producers Viacom18 Motion Pictures delayed the release following protests sparked by speculation that it would depict a romantic liaison between the Hindu queen and the 13th and 14th century Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji.

Khalji, from the second ruling dynasty of the Muslim sultanate of Delhi, was of Turkish origin, and is known for thwarting six Mongol invasions on India. 

Politicians and several of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states had threatened to ban the film for distorting historical facts, even though historians say the queen, Padmavati, is a mythical character.

TRT World's Neha Poonia has more from New Delhi over what the ruling BJP could be doing after a Hindu group threatened mass immolation of women if the movie is screened.

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"If we go by this (the arguments levelled against films), 60 percent of literature, even classical literature of India cannot be read," Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra said during the hearing, The Indian Express reported. 

The court has ordered the Indian states to ensure law and order is maintained on January 25 when the movie hits screens. 

Backlash from Indian right-wing

The film first ran into opposition in January 2017 when a Hindu right-wing group Rajput Karni Sena attacked director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and vandalised the set during filming in Rajasthan.

Protesters attacked another set near Mumbai in March, burning costumes and other props.

In November last year, a member of India's ruling BJP, Suraj Pal Amu, offered $1.5 million to anyone who beheaded the lead actress Deepika Padukone and the director.

Books and movies have been banned or received threats of violence because they either offend one religious or caste group, or are deemed offensive to Indian culture in general.

In 2014, the publishing house Penguin India pulled from shelves and destroyed all copies of American historian Wendy Doniger's The Hindus: An Alternative History after a Hindu right-wing group protested, mainly because it said the book described Hindu mythological texts as fictional.

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