Balen Shah, the mayor of Kathmandu, has expressed displeasure with the dialogue in Adipurush and enjoined its release. Even the ban on other Indian films was proclaimed by him. On June 16, the movie Adipurush, starring Prabhas, Kriti Sanon, and Saif Ali Khan, was released. Since then, it has drawn criticism on social media. The Om Raut-directed movie is getting flak for its subpar dialogue and visual effects. Adipurush and other Indian films were recently banned in Kathmandu by Mayor Balen Shah. Adipurush’s creators have since apologised to him.
Makers of Adipurush apologize to Kathmandu Mayor
Balen Shah has previously threatened to prohibit Indian films in Kathmandu due to an inaccurate allusion to Sita’s birthplace in Adipurush. However, the film’s creators made no alterations to it. On Sunday, he expressed disappointment and announced that Indian films, including Adipurush, would not be screening in the city. The creators of Adipurush sent him a letter of apology and a request to revoke the ban in response to the current situation.
According to one section of the letter, “At the outset, we would like to apologize if we have hurt the sentiments of the people of Nepal in any way… It was never intentional or deliberate to cause disharmony for anyone.” They also wrote about Prabhas’ dialogue in reference to Sita and explained the intention behind it. It further read, “As Indians, the respect of women all over the world is of the utmost importance to us. We request you to view the film in its artistic form and support the intention of reaching out to a larger audience to create interest in our history.”
Balen Shah previously described the ‘Janaki is a daughter of India’ discourse as ‘objectionable’ in his note. He wrote, “Indian film ‘Adipurush’ has dialogue claiming Janaki was India’s daughter. This is objectionable and we had given a three-day ultimatum (to the makers) to correct it. There is no doubt that it is the first duty of every government, government agency, and non-governmental sector and Nepali citizens to protect the national interest by keeping Nepal and its freedom, independence and self-respect intact. If the film is shown as it is, it seems that Nepal’s nationality, cultural unity and national identity will be severely damaged and irreparable damage will be done.”
Then he said, “Due to cultural encroachment on Nepal from that movie, this metropolitan city has attracted serious attention. If the film is allowed to be shown in other areas within the country and abroad, it will establish a misleading fact, so it is prohibited to show any Indian film in the Kathmandu metropolitan city until the objectionable parts are removed from the said film.”
