The mayor of Kathmandu, the Nepalese capital, on Monday ordered a ban on the screening of hugely popular Indian films following controversy over a film based on the Hindu mythological epic Ramayana. Dialogue from the film Adipurush, which was released in Hindi and four other Indian languages on Friday, has been criticized.
The Ramayana epic chronicles King Rama’s attempt to rescue his kidnapped wife, Sita. Traditionally, Sita was born in Janakpur, a region in southern Nepal, but the film suggests she was born in India, which sparked anger in Kathmandu.
Prior to the film’s release, the capital’s mayor, Balendra Shah, warned that it would not be screened if this part was retained, and censors cut dialogue deemed offensive to Nepalese audiences. But as the film remained unchanged outside of Nepal, the mayor issued a broader ban in protest. “Only banning this film in Kathmandu Municipality while it is filming in other parts of the country and abroad will establish a misleading fact,” Shah wrote on social media on Sunday. “Screening of any Indian film will be banned from tomorrow (Monday) in Kathmandu Municipality unless the objectionable part is removed from the film.”
The film’s distributor in Nepal, Shree Byankatesh Entertainment, said on Monday that cinemas in several other cities had postponed the screening of Adipurush for “security issues”. Nakim Uddin, founder of QFX Cinemas, Nepal’s largest cinema chain, said he intended to challenge the mayor’s decision. “The announcement disrupted the screening of Indian films in Kathmandu, but we will go to court” to lift the ban, he told AFP on Monday.
In India too, Adipurush has generated controversy, especially for its depictions of the monkey deity Hanuman, Rama and Sita. Screenwriter Manoj Muntashir Shukla and the film’s producers said the disputed dialogues would be changed. The film cost around $61 million to make and collected nearly half of that in the first two days since its release. Nepal has banned Indian films several times in the past. In 2009, the Bollywood film Chandni Chowk to China was banned following protests. The film told that Buddha, who is said to have been born in Nepal, was born in India.
