'Adipurush' row: Nepal's Kathmandu, Pokhara ban Indian films screening

Amid the row over the dialogues in ‘Adipurush’, Nepal’s capital city Kathmandu and tourist town of Pokhara, banned the screening of all Indian films in the cities.

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As per the reports from foreign news agencies, the dialogues in the recently-released ‘Adipurush’ including the claim of Janaki/Sita to be the daughter of India, has caused an outrage in the country as the Nepalese Hindus are of the belief that she was born in Janakpur, Nepal.

To respect the religious sentiments of these people, over 17 cinema halls in the country were barred from screening all sorts of Hindi films, with effect from June 19 and police personnel were deployed to ensure the measures.

On Sunday, the Mayor of Kathmandu Balendra Shah said that no Indian film will be allowed to screen in the metropolis until the dialogue ‘Janaki is a daughter of India’ is removed from all the versions of the film, including the one to be released in India.

As per Shah, the screening of the film with the dialogue will cause ‘irreparable damage’.

Moreover, Mayor Dhanaraj Acharya of Pokhara also ordered the ban on Indian cinema, starting from Monday.

It is pertinent to mention that Sita, the mother goddess for Hindus and the main character of the mythological epic ‘Ramayan’, was known as Janaki after being adopted by King Janak and raised as his daughter.

Apart from being the birthplace of Sita, daughter of Mithila, Janakpur in Nepal is also home to Janki Temple, dedicated to her.

As for the dialogue controversy due to the ‘pedestrian language’ used in the film, writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla confirmed that makers are revising the parts of the dialogues, and the amended lines will be added to the title by this week.

Based on the Hindu mythological epic ‘Ramayan’, ‘Adipurush’ stars Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan, Kriti Sanon and Sunny Singh in lead roles. The multilingual saga was released theatrically over the weekend.

Watch: Prabhas fans beat up man for negative review of ‘Adipurush’