Karni Sena vandalises multiplexes over screening of ‘Veer’ in city

JAIPUR: Salman Khan-starrer Veer continues to court controversy in the state. After being delayed due to the hullabaloo created during its shooting at Amber Fort and later in Bikaner, the movie on Saturday faced the ire of Karni Sena in Jaipur, leading to a lathi charge and damages to the multiplexes.
A week after the movie’s release, Karni Sena woke up to stage a protest alleging that a few scenes in the movie were hurting the sentiments of the Rajput community.
Supporters of Karni Sena created ruckus at a multiplex and a mall in Vaishali Nagar and Jhotwara on Saturday. They smashed window panes and flowerpots at both the places while shouting slogans against Salman. The police resorted to lathicharge to disperse the crowd and arrested 22 demonstrators.
Though Karni Sena supporters had issued a warning on Friday, many unaware movie goers and shoppers were left stranded following the demonstrations.
According to the police, over 200 people gathered at INOX multiplex in Vaishali Nagar and another 150 at Triton Mall in Jhotwara and started shouting slogans.
“At both the places, the police had to resort to mild lathicharge as the crowd damaged property. They broke glass doors and smashed some flowerpots on the ground,” said a senior police officer. Twenty-two demonstrators were arrested under Section 151 of the IPC. They were later remanded to judicial custody.
“The scenes in the movie depicted the community as a bunch of cowards, something which is not acceptable to us,” said Ajit Singh, state president, Karni Sena.
The Karni Sena has raised objections on three scenes in the movie which they feel show the community in a bad light: The Rajtilak of a Rajput princess despite her father being alive; Salman’s dialogue where he claims Rajputs as traitors and a Rajput prince backing out of a challenge.
“All these things are against the Rajput character and malign the image of our brave community,” said Ajit. This is a claim that the director of the movie Anil Sharma refutes, “We have not shown anything that could hurt the sentiments of the Rajput community,” says Sharma. He further adds, “The Pindaris were a part of the Rajput community and those who are creating the ruckus should first go and watch the movie and also read history.” Sharma said that he doesn’t plan to cut any scenes and will think about out if the local distributors ask.
Earlier, movies with Rajput subjects like Jodhaa Akbar, Gulaal and Zubeida ahd also faced wrath of Rajput protestors. Commenting on the violence Singh said that the violence was not intented and its sad that such things happened.
“We had urged the administration to stop screening and had planned a peaceful protest. However, at a few places there were scuffle between the protestors and the cops. This should not have happened,” he said.