Why Two Major Cities In Nepal Have Barred Adipurush Film From Screening

Mayors of two cities in Nepal have enforced a ban on screening of newly-released Bollywood film Adipurush over a dialogue where Ma Sita is described as “Bharat ki beti” (daughter of Bharat). 

On Saturday, Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah took to Facebook to announce that he had directed cinema halls to not screen the film unless the dialogue was removed.

Later, Dhanaraj Acharya, mayor of another city named Pokhara, too, enforced the ban from Monday onwards. 

Acharya’s post said, “Indian film Adipurush had a dialogue claiming Janaki was India’s daughter which is objectionable and we had given three days’ ultimatum to correct it. There is no doubt that it is the first duty of every government, government agency, non-governmental sector and Nepali citizen to protect the national interest by keeping Nepal’s freedom, independence and self-respect intact.”

It is widely believed that Ma Sita was born in Janakpur, which was then part of the Mithila kingdom under Rajarshi Janak. The city is now in Nepal, located about 200 kilometres from capital Kathmandu.

In Nepal, a Hindu majority country, the city of Janakpur has a magnificent Janaki temple dedicated to Ma Sita. It is believed that it was here that the Shiv Dhanush was broken and Lord Ram and Ma Sita married.

In 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to the temple during his official visit to Nepal. 

In the film, the key characters of Lord Ram, Ravan, Lakshman and Sita have been given the names Raghav, Lankesh, Shesh and Janaki respectively.

The makers of Adipurush are yet to clarify on the controversy even as they are already facing severe public backlash for the film’s dialogues and screenplay, widely criticised as being pedestrian and below par.

The film has been produced by T-Series, Retrophiles and UV Creations, and directed by Om Raut.

The film’s dialogues, which the makers have announced are being modified, have been written by Manoj Muntashir Shukla.