"I saw the film and I feel it is among the most accomplished achievements I've seen in Indian cinema in recent times. He questions why protesters are against this film that pays "homage to the valour and integrity of the Rajput community."Īkhtar says he watched Padmaavat on Wednesday night along with his wife Shabana Azmi and came away "completely bowled over" by the experience.
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Veteran writer-lyricist Javed Akhtar too questions what the protests are about. It is something else, beyond my understanding." But again I repeat, what is happening to Sanjay Bhansali's film is no ordinary protest. "One doesn't think of these things while making a film. Would Benegal hesitate to direct Padmavati today? "Not at all," comes the prompt answer. Why are they not being arrested even when they openly issue threats against the director and his actors?" The law enforcers know exactly who they are. "We've these strange men with their aggressive demeanour going on national television to issue open threats. His sister Bela Sehgal and his brother-in-law Deepal Sehgal were also involved in the episode as editors.īenegal wonders why the government is silent over the unlawful protests against Padmaavat. No one had a problem with it back then, but now when Sanjay makes a film based on the same poem we have women with swords coming in front of the media threatening to commit jauhar to stop the film," the filmmaker adds.īhansali was an assistant director on the Padmavati episode of Benegal's Bharat Ek Khoj. "But I presume this is exactly what transpires in it.
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In the end Rani Padmavati commits jauhar along with hundreds of followers," says the director who confesses he hasn't seen the Bhansali's film. We shot the story exactly the way Jayasi described it in his poem. The poem describes the mad infatuation of Khilji for the Chittoor queen. He talks of love as something that can be desired, never fulfilled. "His beautiful 15th-century poem is based on the idea of unattainable love. Interestingly, Benegal's vision of what transpired between Rani Padmini and Khilji was also based on the poem Padmaavat by Malik Mohammed Jayasi.