Adipurush Row: Kathmandu Mayor Threatens To Ban Indian Movies Over 'Sita India's Daughter' Dialogue

Adipurush Row: After facing huge backlash in India, Prabhas and Kriti Sanon's "Adipurush" movie is witnessing obstacles abroad. Kathmandu Mayor Balendra Shah has announced that no Indian movie will be shown in the Kathmandu Metropolitan area and all theatres have been informed about this ban.

Shah has demanded to remove the contentious dialogue from the film, not just in Nepal but elsewhere across the globe where it was released.

Taking to Facebook, the Kathmandu Mayor, who goes by the name Balen on the social media platform, threatened to enforce a ban on the screening of all Indian movies through the deployment of the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police.

"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," the Kathmandu mayor stated in a Facebook post.

The mayor claimed the screening of the film would damage the country's national identity, nationality, and cultural unity.

"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. Due to cultural encroachment on Nepal from that movie, this metropolitan city has attracted serious attention," the Mayor stated further in his Facebook post.

Shah stated, "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."

Further, according to the mayor's secretariat, personnel from the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police were deployed on Sunday evening and conveyed the message to ban the screening of Indian films on Monday morning.

"Adipurush," which was released across the globe on Friday, has a dialogue that proclaims "Janaki (another name for Sita) is a daughter of India".
The dialogue, however, has been removed in Nepal after the censor board in the Himalayan nation raised an objection over it and delayed the film's release on Friday.

The censor board of Nepal on Thursday asked the makers to beep out the dialogue in the film before clearing it for screening across theatres in the country.
However, the scheduled release of the film on Friday couldn't go ahead as planned as the advisory or circular to beep out the contentious dialogue did not reach the makers on time.

On Friday, the mayor wrote to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, requesting it to stop the screening of all Indian films in Nepal unless the objectionable dialogue from the recently released 'Adipurush' is omitted.

Shah also sent a copy of his letter to the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Film Development Board, urging the government to take diplomatic initiatives with India to remove the dialogue.

Mentioning that Article 5 and Article 56 (6) of Nepal's constitution have vested the federal, provincial, and local governments with the responsibility to protect the national interest, Shah said the metropolis was concerned with the film's "cultural encroachment".

(With input from agencies)