On Thursday (June 17), protestors belonging to All India Kshatriya Mahasabha (AIKM) burnt the effigy of actor Akshay Kumar over his upcoming film on the great Hindu king Prithviraj Chauhan.

After making threats against multiple Hindi films, the Karni Sena is now targeting Akshay Kumar's upcoming film, Prithviraj. The outfit is demanding a title change for the film.

Speaking to a leading daily, Surjeet Singh Rathore, president of the youth wing of the sena, said, “How can they keep the title of the film as just Prithviraj when the film is based on the great Prithviraj Chauhan? We want the title to be changed to his full name and give respect to him.”

Singh added that the film's team will face treatment similar to what was faced by filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali during the filming of Padmaavat, if their demands are not met. “If they don’t listen to our advice they will have to face the consequences. What happened to Sanjay Leela Bhansali during Padmaavat, the makers of this film will have to be prepared for it, too,” he said.

In 2016, while Padmaavat was still being shot in Rajasthan, members of the outfit destroyed the sets and costumes, and even physically assaulted Sanjay. Karni Sena claimed that the film has a romantic sequence between Deepika Padukone’s Rani Padmini and Ranveer Singh’s Alauddin Khilji. Despite the filmmaker’s denial that no such scene exists, the protests continued in many states across India and came to a head around film’s release. Padukone and Bhansali also faced death threats. The film ultimately got a title change from Padmavati to Padmaavat and Karni Sena later accepted that the film honoured Rajput valour and ended their protest against it.

As per reports, the protests were held in Sector-45 of Chandigarh during which they demanded a change of the movie’s title from ‘Prithviraj’ to ‘Hindu Samrat Prithviraj Chauhan’. The AIKM demonstrators raised slogans and burnt effigies of actor Akshay Kumar in protest. They have claimed that the movie title disrespected the Hindu king.

The All India Kshatriya Mahasabha had demanded that senior members of the community must be shown the film, prior to its release. It had sought to see whether the history had been tampered with in the movie.

The protestors also threatened that the film would meet the same fate as ‘Jodhaa Akbar’ and ‘Padmaavat’ if the director and producers did not comply with their demands. Earlier, Karni Sena had too made similar demands with regards to the movie.

Movie of Akshay Kumar to be released in November this year

Prithviraj is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language historical action drama film directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi and produced by Yash Raj Films. The film is based on life of Prithviraj Chauhan. It features Akshay Kumar as Prithviraj Chauhan, while Manushi Chhillar makes her Hindi film debut by playing his beloved wife Sanyogita. The film also stars Sanjay Dutt, Sonu Sood, Ashutosh Rana, Sakshi Tanwar, Manav Vij and Lalit Tiwari in other important characters.

An official motion poster of the film was released by Yash Raj Films to 9 September 2020, for making its official declaration and revealing that it will release in cinemas on Diwali 2020. Principal photography began in Jaipur on 15 November 2019, but was suspended in March 2020 owing to COVID-19 pandemic in India, due to which the film was indefinitely postponed. The shoot resumed in October 2020 at YRF Studios, and it is now scheduled to release in theatres on 5 November 2021 coinciding with Diwali.

The film is based on Prithviraj Raso, a Braj Bhasha epic poem about the life of Prithviraj Chauhan.

‘Pritviraj’ movie will showcase actor Akshay Kumar as the Hindu ruler, and former Miss World pageant Manushi Chillar as ‘Sanyogita.’ The movie is being directed by Chandraprakash Dwivedi and produced by Aditya Chopra of Yash Raj Films. The film is set to be released during Diwali on November 5 this year. The shooting of the film was initially delayed due to the Wuhan Coronavirus pandemic. Akshay Kumar is yet to react to the development.