The release of a highly anticipated Bollywood blockbuster has been delayed after a politician from India's governing party offered a bounty of $1.5 million for the heads of the movie's star and director amid outcry that the film distorted Hindu legend.
The movie "Padmavati depicting the life of legendary 14th-century queen Padmini sparked the latest in a string of flash points from right-wing groups that perceive more clout under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has courted Hindu nationalists as part of his political base.
Often Hindu outrage is stoked by little more than rumors, including deadly riots and vigilante violence over false claims that Muslims were killing cows sacred to Hindu culture. But this time with the film, the reason for the outrage is even more puzzling.
The violent reaction to the film's release further suggests a groundswell of conservatism in Modi's India. Bollywood films in the 2000s were known for breaking taboos, as they increasingly began to show on-screen kissing, live-in relationships between unmarried couples and interreligious romances, most famously in the 2008 historical drama "Jodhaa Akbar."
Some members of Modi's party have made efforts to minimize Muslims' role Indian culture and history. Recently, members of the governing party misleadingly said that the Taj Mahal was built on the site of an old Hindu temple and that it "did not represent Indian culture. The Taj Mahal was built by the Muslim Mughal king Shah Jahan.
Alhough members of right-wing groups have been briefly arrested for making threats in the past, the government rarely pursues legal action against them.
CREDITS: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/11/20/indian-ruling-party-member-offers-bounty-for-the-beheading-of-bollywoods-biggest-female-stars/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.2e4d6f07d269
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