Adipurush Row: After Kathmandu, Pokhara bans screening of all Indian films

Ever since the first teaser of the film was dropped by the makers of ‘Adipurush’ it is facing a backlash from the audience. The film which was released on June 16 is witnessing massive backlash and boycott calls for playing with the emotions of lakhs of Hindus. Notably, the rage is not witnessed in the country but is now coming from across the globe.

The first being neighbouring country Nepal where the capital city Kathmandu and Pokhara calls for a ban on the film, ‘Adipurush’. This ban will extend to all the Bollywood films to be released in future. These two cities of Nepal from now onwards will not have any screenings of Indian Bollywood films.

The Mayor of Kathmandu, Balendra Shah, on June 18 ordered all cinema halls in the Nepalese capital to stop screening of all Bollywood films. The order came three days after Shah gave an ultimatum to the Indian makers of the film Adipurush urging them to delete a portion where a dialogue refers to Sita as the “daughter of India”.

“No Hindi film will be allowed to run in Kathmandu Metropolitan City until the dialogue “Janaki (Sita) is India’s daughter” in “Adipurush” is removed,” said Shah.

Police have also been deployed to ensure that no Indian films are screened at the cinemas in the Kathmandu metropolitan area of Nepal.

“All the cinema halls in Kathmandu will stop showing Indian films from June 19 as per the instructions issued by the KMC,” said Nabin Manandhar, spokesperson of the Kathmandu Municipal Corporation (KMC).

“We have already talked to the cinema hall owners in Kathmandu for cooperation and they have agreed to voluntarily halt screening Hindi movies within Kathmandu Metropolis from Monday (June 19),” he said.

Notably, Pokhara Mayor made a similar announcement on June 18 and ordered cinema halls in the city to halt the screening of all Bollywood films from June 19. Mayor Dhanraj Acharya sent letters to three movie theatres telling them to stop screening Indian films, reported ANI.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, Kathmandu Mayor Shah said he would be banning the screening of all Indian films by deploying the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police.

“Indian film Adipurush features a dialogue claiming Janaki was India’s daughter which is incorrect. To correct it, we had given three days’ ultimatum. It is the first duty of every government and non-government agency, and Nepali citizens to protect the national interest of the country,”

“If the film is shown as is, Nepal’s nationality and cultural identity is damaged. The film has attracted serious attention due to its cultural encroachment,” the mayor wrote.

He said it would cause “irreparable damage to our nationality, cultural unity” and deal a “blow to our national heroes.” Shah seems committed to halting the screening of all Hindi films currently being shown in all 17 cinema halls within the capital city.

“If the movie is allowed to be telecast in other areas and abroad, by prohibiting the performance of anti-national films within the Kathmandu Metropolitan area, then it is prohibited to perform any Indian movie in Kathmandu Metropolitan from tomorrow until objectionable portions are removed from the movie.,” he said.

Even the production company T-Series, wrote to the Nepali mayor claiming that the movie is a work of art and its dialogues should not be misinterpreted as an intention to harm national or religious sentiments.

“We request you to view the film in its artistic form and support the intention of reaching out to a larger audience to create interest in our history,” reads the letter signed by Radhika Das from T-Series.

However, the Nepal Mayor has also claimed that no Indian movie would be allowed to be screened in the country unless changes are made to the dialogues not only in his country but also India.

As controversy spiralled, Adipurush dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla on Sunday said the makers of the movie had decided to “revise some of the dialogues” after the film was criticised heavily for its pedestrian language. Shukla, who has penned the dialogues said, he will revise the film with the director in the coming week.

Raju Pandey, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Police chief, said the police inspected the cinema halls within the city on June 18 in accordance with the mayor’s instructions.

“We got a positive response during the inspection on Sunday and we are now monitoring all the cinema halls from June 19,” Pandey said.

“While monitoring QFX Hall at Civil Mahal in Kathmandu… they said they will show Nepali and English movies instead of Hindi ones. We will not allow screening of Hindi movies until the KMC authority gives permission,” he added.

Produced by T-Series, Retrophiles, and UV Creations, the film also stars Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh (Ravana), Sunny Singh as Shesh (Lakshman) and Devdutta Nage as Bajrang (Hanuman).

“Adipurush continues to mesmerise audiences worldwide, surpassing expectations with a bumper opening of Rs 140 CR on Day 1, it adds Rs 100 CR on Day 2, taking the total collection to a phenomenal Rs 240 CR in just two days! Jai Shri Ram,” T-Series said in a statement posted on its official Twitter page