Several states in India stepped up police patrols ahead of today's release of Padmaavat, a new Bollywood film mired in controversy. Hindu groups took to the streets when the country's Supreme Court said the movie could be screened nationwide. Right-wing Hindu organisations allege the movie distorts history and had earlier sought to have it banned. Filmmakers deny the claim. As The National reports, the film begins with a string of disclaimers, its producers keen to point out that the movie was inspired by the work of Malik Muhammad Jayasi, a Sufi poet, rather than being a faithful portrayal of historical events.
Nevertheless, the response to Padmaavat has been ferocious. Police opened fire in Gujarat on Tuesday to disperse protesters. Fearing retribution against customers and employees, India's second largest cinema chain said it would not play the film in its venues in Gujarat and Rajasthan. An effigy of director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was burned in Chhatisgarh on the same day, while hardliners offered bounties to those willing to commit acts of violence against the film's stars. On Wednesday, 150 Rajput women threatened to burn themselves alive if the film was released, mirroring the film's most dramatic scene. Crucially, none of those who spilled onto the streets had actually seen the film. They were simply swimming with the swelling tide of acrimony.
The visceral reaction raises questions and complications for film regulators and authorities, particularly when public safety is threatened. Padmaavat is, of course, only the latest film in a long list of movies to have been selectively withdrawn from screens around the world. Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange was removed from UK cinemas after it inspired copycat acts of violence. The 2014 comedy The Interview, not normally mentioned in the same breath as Kubrick's masterpiece, had its US cinema release pulled amid cyber-attacks and threats from North Korea. In the event, public demand to see this forbidden fruit transformed the film's fortunes.
Film makers and law makers argue that they have a right to free expression and, certainly, it is always a dark day when a baying mob strong arms its way to supremacy. What the controversy over Padmaavat tells us is that the authorities have a difficult line to tread in keeping the streets safe and ensuring that cultural producers continue to develop films and projects that challenge and entertain.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
The specs
Engine: four-litre V6 and 3.5-litre V6 twin-turbo
Transmission: six-speed and 10-speed
Power: 271 and 409 horsepower
Torque: 385 and 650Nm
Price: from Dh229,900 to Dh355,000
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
Moral education needed in a 'rapidly changing world'
Moral education lessons for young people is needed in a rapidly changing world, the head of the programme said.
Alanood Al Kaabi, head of programmes at the Education Affairs Office of the Crown Price Court - Abu Dhabi, said: "The Crown Price Court is fully behind this initiative and have already seen the curriculum succeed in empowering young people and providing them with the necessary tools to succeed in building the future of the nation at all levels.
"Moral education touches on every aspect and subject that children engage in.
"It is not just limited to science or maths but it is involved in all subjects and it is helping children to adapt to integral moral practises.
"The moral education programme has been designed to develop children holistically in a world being rapidly transformed by technology and globalisation."
Bio
Born in Dubai in 1994
Her father is a retired Emirati police officer and her mother is originally from Kuwait
She Graduated from the American University of Sharjah in 2015 and is currently working on her Masters in Communication from the University of Sharjah.
Her favourite film is Pacific Rim, directed by Guillermo del Toro
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How does ToTok work?
The calling app is available to download on Google Play and Apple App Store
To successfully install ToTok, users are asked to enter their phone number and then create a nickname.
The app then gives users the option add their existing phone contacts, allowing them to immediately contact people also using the application by video or voice call or via message.
Users can also invite other contacts to download ToTok to allow them to make contact through the app.
