Amid outrage over 'Adipurush', Nepal on Monday banned all Hindi films in the capital Kathmandu and the tourist town of Pokhara following a controversy over the film's dialogues, including the mention of Sita as “India's daughter”. Police personnel were deployed across 17 halls in Kathmandu to ensure that no Hindi film is screened.
Why did Nepal ban Indian films?
> Kathmandu mayor Balendra Shah on Sunday said no Hindi film will be allowed to run in Kathmandu Metropolitan City until the dialogue "Janaki is a daughter of India" in Adipurush, a retelling of the Ramayana directed by Om Raut and featuring Prabhas and Kriti Sanon, is removed not just in Nepal but also in India.
> According to the Kathmandu mayor, screening Adipurush without getting one of its dialogues removed will cause “irreparable damage”.
> Pokhara Metropolis mayor Dhanaraj Acharya said Adipurush will be barred from screening from Monday onwards.
{{/usCountry}}> Pokhara Metropolis mayor Dhanaraj Acharya said Adipurush will be barred from screening from Monday onwards.
{{/usCountry}}> Hindus in Nepal - about 80 per cent of the country's population - believe that Sita was born in Janakpur in Nepal, which was once part of the Mithila kingdom under Rajarshi Janak.
> Sita is known as 'Jaanaki' because she was adopted by King Janak and raised as his daughter.
> Janakpur is the home to the magnificent Janki Temple, dedicated to Sita, the daughter of Mithila and the mother goddess revered by Hindus worldwide.
> During his official visit to Nepal in 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid a visit to the Janki Temple and also inaugurated the Ayodhya-Janakpur bus service, connecting two significant cities in the Ramayana pilgrimage.
> Janakpur is not only considered Sita's birthplace but also the site where the breaking of the Shiv Dhanush and the wedding of Lord Ram and Sita are believed to have happened.
Controversy over ‘Adipurush’
As controversy spiralled, Adipurush dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir Shukla on Sunday said the makers of the movie had decided to "revise some of the dialogues" after the film was criticised heavily for its pedestrian language.
Shukla, who has penned the Hindi dialogues and songs of the multilingual saga, said the amended lines will be added to the film by this week.
Produced by T-Series, Retrophiles, and UV Creations, the film also stars Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh (Ravana), Sunny Singh as Shesh (Lakshman) and Devdutta Nage as Bajrang (Hanuman).
(With inputs from PTI)