Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati is the story of a Muslim ruler, who lusts after a Hindu queen. Given the current pro-Hindutva mood in the country, are production houses being cautious about backing such scripts?
The problems related to the film are rather complex. From the enormous budget to the intense casting procedure and the script, the project is facing trouble.
Some say the main reason for the film navigating through choppy waters, is not only the budget. Nor is it the casting. Both can be fixed by a filmmaker of Bhansali’s stature. (For one, he can cut down on his own Rs 22-crore fee by half).
The real problem lies in the plot, as said earlier — an Islamic invader, Alauddin Khilji, is lusting after the beautiful wife of the King of Chittor, Rawal Rattan Singh.
Also, some believe the legend of Padmavati has no real historical foundation. Padmavati is the Ramayan from Raavan’s point of view. It’s the story of the arrogant, tyrannical invader who sets his eyes on the beautiful queen of the invaded kingdom.
Seen in the mythological context, Ranveer Singh will play Raavan, Shahid Kapoor will essay Ram and Deepika Padukone, the archetypal Sita. But the focus in the plot would be the conflict between the foreign invader and the righteous and stunningly beautiful queen, who will not succumb to the invader’s lustful gaze.
This is not the first film to be seen from Raavan’s point of view. Six years ago, Mani Ratnam tried the same in Raavan, with Aishwarya Rai Bachchan playing the abducted Sita and her real-life husband as Raavan. The film was a colossal disaster.
Padmavati, too, subverts a real-life couple Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh’s Ram-Sita relationship into an antagonistic Raavan-driven equation on screen. There are also references to the banned practices of Sati, at least in the opera version of Padmavati that Bhansali had directed in Paris — way back in 2008 — in which the queen prefers to perish in her slain husband’s pyre rather than succumb to Alaudin Khilji’s sexual advances. Will Sanjay Leela Bhansali stick to his original script or change it?
