A MEMBER of India’s Hindu nationalist ruling party has offered a 100 million rupee (£1.2 million) reward to anyone who beheads the lead actress and the director of the yet-to-be released Bollywood film Padmavati over its alleged handling of the relationship between a Hindu queen and a Muslim ruler.
Suraj Pal Amu, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader from the northern state of Haryana, offered the bounty against actress Deepika Padukone and filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Sunday.
The film’s producers postponed the release of the film, which was set to be in cinemas on December 1.
Padmavati is based on a 16th century Sufi epic poem, Padmavat, a fictional account of a Rajput queen who chose to kill herself rather than be captured by the Muslim sultan of Delhi.
It comes after India’s Supreme Court refused to intervene in the controversy, stating a desire for the country’s censor board to act independently in its assessment of the film.
The Central Board of Film Classification has not yet ruled on Padmavati.
The film’s distributors, Viacom 18, confirmed the delay in release this week, saying that the filmmakers were confident of approval.
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