Ready to pay filmmaking cost to Bhansali if he hands over Padmaavat rights: Karni Sena

Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi clarified that their organisation had no role in the attack on a school bus in Gurgaon.

Shri Rajput Karni Sena said on Saturday it was ready to pay the money spent on making Padmaavat if it was handed over the film’s rights and stressed that the organisation had nothing to do with incidents of violence that happened over its release.

Karni Sena chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi during a press conference at Press Club of India in New Delhi on Saturday.(Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

During a press conference, Karni Sena’s chief Lokendra Singh Kalvi said they were ready to pay director Sanjay Leela Bhansali the money he had spent on making the film if he handed over its rights to the outfit.

“We are ready to collect the money and pay him if he hands over the rights of the film to us. We will then carry out a jauhar of the film’s reels (assign them to flames),” he said.

Kalvi also clarified their members or of any other Kshtariya organisation had no hand in the attack on a school bus in Gurgaon.

On Wednesday, a mob attacked the school bus carrying 20 to 25 children in Gurgaon, where hundreds of violent protesters took to roads torching vehicles and destroying public property to oppose the film’s release.

“We are ready for any kind of probe, be it by the CBI or a judicial one. A Rajput can never think of doing such a thing. If we were present there, we would have never let such an attack happen,” Kalvi said.

He also said their outfit’s members had nothing to do with the violence in Ahmedabad in which vehicles were vandalised outside the malls.

Kalvi accused those connected to the film to be behind the attacks.

“Yesterday, we did not carry out any protests because it was Republic Day and we respect our nation. But we will continue our protests till the film is taken down from cinema halls,” he said, stressing that they would never resort to violence.

Bhansali’s Padmaavat starring Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh finally released on January 25 amid protests and vandalism by disgruntled groups which accused the filmmaker of “distorting historical facts” and wrongful portrayal of Queen Padmavati.

Historians, however, are divided on whether Rajput queen Padmavati existed.