Jodhaa Akbar, directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar, was on Friday released across the world, except in Rajasthan, the land of princess Jodhaa. Protests by the Rajput Karni Sena ensured that the movie was not released in the state. It was to be released in 30 cinema halls across Rajasthan, but following the Karni Sena's threats of a violent protest, the owners of these halls shied away from screening it. This, in spite of fact that the Rajasthan High Court had directed the administration to ensure peaceful screening of the movie.

Though the police and the administration had assured that security would be provided to the cinema hall owners, none of them approached the police in this regard. “There is no point taking risks,” said Ashok Tanwar, manager of the famous Raj Mandir theatre, one of the nine cinema halls in Jaipur where the movie was to be released.

For more than a month now, the Rajput Karni Sena has been protesting against the movie, which they claim is a distorted version of history. It had called for a ban on the movie and claimed that Jodhaa was the wife of Akbar's son Jahangir and not Akbar's, as the film suggests.

The film, starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, had its premiere in Mumbai on Thursday night.

The film’s director, producer and distributors had telephonic conversations with Karni Sena representatives on Thursday, but failed to find a way out.

Siddharth Roy Kapoor of the UTV Motion Pictures claimed a tremendous amount of research has gone into the movie and “every precaution” has been taken. He regretted that certain elements were trying to create problems.

... contd.