Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
20-06-2023
KATHMANDU: All Hindi films, including “Adipurush”, were banned in the Nepal capital Kathmandu and the tourist town of Pokhara on Monday following a controversy over its dialogues, including the mention of Sita as “India’s daughter”.
Police personnel were deployed across 17 halls in Kathmandu to ensure that no Hindi film is screened. At the centre of the row is “Adipurush”, a retelling of the Ramayana directed by Om Raut and Prabhas and Kriti Sanon in the lead.
Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah on Sunday said no Hindi film will be allowed to run in Kathmandu Metropolitan City until the dialogue “Janaki is a daughter of India” in “Adipurush” is removed not just in Nepal but also in India Sita, also referred to as Janaki, is believed by many to have been born in Janakpur in southeast Nepal.
According to Kathmandu mayor, screening “Adipurush” without getting one of its dialogues removed will cause “irreparable damage”.
“Screening of all the Hindi films will be barred within Kathmandu Metropolitan City from Monday, June 19, as the objectionable words in the dialogue of the film ‘Adipurush’ has not yet been removed,” he said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
“We have already issued notice three days ago to remove the objectionable portion of the dialogue that ‘Sita is India’s daughter’ from the movie within three days,” he added.
Shah’s post sent Nepali social media into a frenzy, with many users welcoming the mayor’s decision and others denouncing it.
As controversy spiraled, “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 criticized heavily for its pedestrian language.
Shukla, who has penned the Hindi dialogues and songs of the multilingual saga, said the amended lines will be added to the film by this week.
Raju Pandey, Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) Police chief, said the police inspected the cinema halls within the city on Sunday 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 Monday morning,” Mr 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. (Int’l News Desk)
