No screening of Kangana’s film Emergency in Punjab
Police step up security outside multiplexes and malls as Sikh activists hold protests against film, alleging it defames the community.
A day after the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) chief Harjinder Singh Dhami demanded Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann ban actor-director and BJP MP Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency as it “defamed the Sikh community”, cinema theatre owners steered clear of screening the film in the state on Friday.
The film, which sees Ranaut playing the role of former prime minister Indira Gandhi, focuses on 21 months of Emergency from 1975-77. The political drama, in controversy over its censor certificate and allegations that it misrepresents the Sikh community, was released across the country on Friday after several delays.
Seeking a ban on the eve of its release, Dhami wrote to Mann, accusing the film of being “politically motivated with an aim to defame Sikh community”. Activists of Sikh organisations held protests outside cinema halls on Friday morning against the movie.
Jalandhar commissioner of police Swapan Sharma said security has been beefed up in and around cinema halls across the city. “We have held meetings with the authorities concerned of multiplexes and cinema halls for not playing the movie as it will create a law and order situation,” he said.
The Sikh activists had barged into cinema halls in Jalandhar and demanded managers stop advance booking of the movie. “The advance booking of the movie was stopped at many theatres. A memorandum related to the demand to stop the screening of the movie was submitted with the police,” said Harpal Singh, a member of Sikh coordination committee.
Police were deployed outside PVR Suraj Chanda Tara Cinema in Amritsar, where a large number of protesters had gathered in the morning.
Mohali admn directs mall owners not to screen film
Sikh activists held a protest outside malls and multiplexes in Phase-8, Sector 67 and Dhillon Plaza in Zirakpur. Heavy police force was deployed to maintain law and order.
The Mohali district administration directed mall owners not to screen the movie.
The protesters alleged that Ranaut had used vulgar language against them during the farmers’ 2020 protest. The actor-turned-MP was allegedly slapped by a woman Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) constable, Kulwinder Kaur, at Chandigarh airport when she was set to board a plane to New Delhi for taking oath as an MP last June. The constable had later told interrogators that she was upset with the Mandi BJP MP for her remarks about the farmers’ protest against the farm laws.
No show at Bathinda, tickets refunded
Sikh activists gathered outside a multiplex in Bathinda on Friday morning to lodge a protest against release of Emergency.
The film is not being screened in the district.
Though the movie was scheduled to be screened from today at the city’s only multiplex, but the management of the shopping mall where the theatre is located dropped the idea on Thursday evening.
Sources said that following the protest, the management refunded the tickets booked.
Police were deployed outside the mall as a precautionary measure.
Punjab Congress chief says facts twisted in film
Punjab Congress chief and MP Amarinder Singh Raja Warring on Friday said: “Whenever such films are made, facts are twisted because the film won’t succeed if there is no ‘masala’. Similarly, Udta Punjab was also made. It is not right that such films are made only for entertainment. Governments and sensor boards should keep an eye on such movies as they harm the brotherhood in the country because what is shown is not true, it is just a scripted story.
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