Oh No! Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s effigies burned in Mumbai by Karni Sena

There has been no respite for filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali ever since he announced his big project ‘Padmavati’ that is based on the life of Rani Padmavati. It stars actress Deepika Padukone in the titular role. (Also Read: It’s deeply saddening to me as a filmmaker, says Karan Johar on vandalism of ‘Padmavati’ sets)

After being beaten up by the Karni Sena on the Jaipur sets and having seen his sets in Kolhapur set ablaze by some miscreants, Bhansali was in for another shock. The members of Karni Sena have now burnt SLB’s effigies in Nalasopara, Mumbai. This unfortunate incident occurred on Friday. However, there hasn’t been any official confirmation by Bhansali Productions on this incident yet.

Earlier, Sanjay Leela Bhansali was assaulted on his Jaipur sets by Karni Sena members as they accused him of including a romantic sequence in the movie between Rani Padmavati and Alauddin Khilji. They believed this to be distortion of real historical facts and disrupted the shooting in Jaipur. This had happened in January 2017.

Recently, a set of ‘Padmavati’ in Kolhapur was set on fire by a group of unidentified men. A spokesperson from Bhansali Productions also issued a statement saying “The sets of ‘Padmavati’ set in Kolhapur in Maharashtra region witnessed an unfortunate incident last night at around 12.30am, when certain miscreants attacked the film’s set and set it on fire in an attempt to damage the property. A complaint has been filed to investigate this matter further, but we are grateful that there has been no loss of life or harm to anybody on the set. While, thankfully the incident occurred after we had wrapped our shoot for the day and all the artists, cast and crew were safely away; unfortunately, around 70 – 80% of costumes and jewellery for the movie have been destroyed.”

This recent incident of SLB’s effigies being burnt is worrisome and leaves a question mark on the release of the movie. ‘Padmavati’ also stars Ranveer Singh in the role of Alauddin Khilji and Shahid Kapoor as Raja Rawal Ratan Singh.

Prajakta Ajgaonkar

Passionate about writing, and a Bollywood lover, she is all that is sweet and endearing! She desires to put her best foot forward in everything that she does and loves to help anyone who’s in need.