Posted:
Two parts to this question.
Is it wrong for people to generalise India based on simply the reception this movie is getting? No. I agree that India has been been progressing in terms of societal development and a handful of people's reaction to a movie should not be considered as a motif for India or Indians.
HOWEVER, when politicians and people holding high positions start inciting violence in the name of "culture", it does present a bad image of India in front of the world. The problem is not in the fact that people are protesting against the movie or that it is a publicity gimmick or whatever, but the fact that people are able to get away with making just threats without a regard for what it means.
We elect politicians to represent us, and when someone in the ruling party, for whatever reason, says that we'll do *insert something harsh* to someone for a simple movie, it sets a bad precedent. As for what SLB should and shouldn't have done - yes, show it to the people who want it and move on. But what I do concern myself with is that fact that Padmavati is not a biography or a documentary. Never was it supposed to be. Things are never going to be shown completely as it was and creating a ruckus for not showing the "facts" when all our history stems from accounts of various sources is not a very poignant solution.
I am not a fan of Deepika or SLB or even historicals and period dramas and I could give a hoot about whether it releases or drops into sea water. But what troubles me about this entire saga is that how are a handful of people as you suggested allowed to dictate what the entire country of more than a billion want to watch. If tomorrow, some movie maker wants to make a movie on some corrupt Rajput King, which I cannot believe did not exist, will Karni Sena start burning things again? If a movie were to be made on a tyrannical Arab ruler, would all the Muslims start beheading people?
While it's not fine to term India regressive because of a few insolent people, what happened is that people got away with threatening and thuggery and that just seems like a black mark on India.
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