January 18, 2018
Actors Vishal and Prakash Raj and film director S.K.
Sasidharan on Thursday hailed the Supreme Court order staying the ban by three
states on the release of Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Padmaavat".
"Justice
has prevailed at the end of the day," said Tamil actor Vishal, reacting to the
apex court's Thursday order striking down notifications by the Gujarat,
Rajasthan and Haryana governments.
The court said it was incumbent upon
the state governments to ensure law and order.
Prakash Raj, a leading
south Indian actor, said the state governments were citing reasons of law and
order for their action.
"These state governments should step down because
they are not fit to be there," he said, alleging that they were catering to
fringe groups for votes.
The actors and the director were speaking at
India Today Conclave South here.
Prakash Raj said the ban on release of
the movie was a blatant attack on freedom of expression.
"I can
understand if Rajputs in Rajasthan had some objections to it. (But) what did
Gujarat and Haryana have to do with it," he asked.
"They wanted to cut
head and nose and they ended up cutting an 'i'," he said referring to the Censor
Board clearing the movie after removing "i" from its earlier title "Padmavati".
Welcoming the Supreme Court order, Vishal said he was the second-most
happiest person after Bhansali.
Voicing concern over increasing number of
restrictions on filmmaking, he said the Central Board of Film Certification
(CBFC) was there to give certification and not to censor movies.
Sasidharan, whose movie "Sexy Durga" was given certification -- which was later
rescinded, took objections to questions from moderator as to why he did not make
films using the names of holy personalities of other religions.
"I can
answer why I made 'Sexy Durga' but these questions are aimed at dividing people.
You want to pit one section of people against other," the director said.
Defending Sasidharan, Prakash Raj wondered why anybody should have objection to
the title when the filmmaker has already made it clear that the film is not
against Hinduism.
"They have no problem with Durga Wines, Durga mutton
shop or Shiva mutton shop. There is a subject and thought process which I want
to express and it decides my title but they want to divide people through such
questions," he said.