Bombay HC refuses to stay Bajirao Mastani release

Even as protests in Pune stalled the shows of Ranveer Singh-Deepika Padukone-starrer film, the Bombay High Court on Friday, refused to interfere with the release of the film Bajirao Mastani.

A division bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil, while hearing a petition filed in HC seeking a stay on the release of the film, said that the court saw no reason to intervene.

A Public Interest Litigation, filed by a Pune based social activist, had claimed that the film, particularly its song Pinga, distorted facts and history, and that it hurt public sentiments.

It claimed that while history documents Kashibai as suffering from “tuberculosis and arthritis that induced a limp, the song shows both, Kashibai and Mastani, performing a Lavani.

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Besides, Pinga is a traditional song and dance routine performed by married women While Lavani is performed predominantly for a male audience and has sexual innuendos and overtones in the song lyrics and the dance moves,” it claimed.

Watch Bajirao Mastani

In Pune, workers from the Bharatiya Janata Party claimed Bajirao Mastani “distorts history” and showed the unvanquished Bajirao in poor light and stalled a few shows on Friday.

Meanwhile, shows of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s Dilwale, were also cancelled at a multiplex at a Jabalpur Mall in the morning after Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) activists created a ruckus and burnt the film’s posters.