Padmavati row: 'Deepika Padukone should know pain of being burnt alive'; Rs 1 crore award announced

NEW DELHI: As the controversy over Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Padmavati refuses to die down, a local fringe group has announced an award of Rs 1 crore for anyone burning Deepika Padukone alive.

Akhil Bhartiya Kshatriya Mahasabha (ABKM) youth wing leader Bhuvneshwar Singh said, "Deepika should know how it feels like to be burnt alive. The actress will never know the sacrifice of the queen. Any person burning her alive will be given Rs 1 crore. We demand that office- bearers of the organisation be shown the movie before it is released."

Haryana's BJP chief media coordinator on Sunday stoked a controversy by announcing Rs 10 crore award for anyone who beheads Padmavati director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and lead actress Deepkia Padukone. Deepika played the legendary Rajput queen Padmavati in the movie.

Earlier, a Meerut resident from the Kshatriya community had announced a bounty of Rs 5 crore on the heads of film director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and actor Deepika Padukone for "wrongfully portraying" queen Padmini in their coming film 'Padmavati'.

On November 17, protesters in Uttar Pradesh announced a bounty of Rs 50 lakhs on the heads of the two Bollywood fraternities.

The period drama has been mired in controversy over conjectures that it "distorts history" regarding Rajput queen Padmavati, a contention that Bhansali has repeatedly denied.

Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya on Sunday said that the film would not be allowed to be released in the state unless its "controversial portions" were removed.

The widespread protests, including threats, over the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film seemed to have led to the launch of the film getting deferred.

"Viacom18 Motion Pictures, the studio behind 'Padmavati', has voluntarily deferred the release date of the film from December 1, 2017," the company spokesperson said in a statement.

On Saturday, Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson Prasoon Joshi had expressed disappointment over the film being screened for some journalists, who said there was nothing in it to hurt anyone's sentiments.