The exhibition of massively famous Indian movies has been outlawed, according to the mayor of Nepal’s capital, after a debate over a film based on the ancient Hindu epic Ramayana.
The dialogue in the movie “Adipurush,” which was released internationally on Friday in Hindi and four other Indian languages, has drawn criticism from critics.
The Ramayana, which served as the film’s source material, centers on King Rama’s efforts to save his abducted wife Sita.
Sita was thought to have been born in Janakpur, a southern Nepalese district, but the movie implies that she was actually born in India, which infuriated Kathmandu.
Balendra Shah, the mayor of Kathmandu, issued a warning before the movie’s release that it wouldn’t be shown if the scene remained, and for Nepali viewers, the offending line was excised.
However, Shah imposed a wider ban in retaliation because the movie was unaltered outside of Nepal.
“Banning only this film in the Kathmandu municipality while it runs in other parts of the country and abroad will establish a misleading fact,” Shah wrote on social media on Sunday.
“So screening of any Indian film will be prohibited from tomorrow (Monday) in Kathmandu municipality unless the objectionable part is removed from the film.”
The film’s distributor in Nepal, Shree Byankatesh Entertainment, said Monday that cinemas in several other cities and towns had postponed screening ‘Adipurush’ over “security concerns”.
Nakim Uddin, founder of QFX Cinemas, Nepal’s largest cinema chain, said they were challenging the ban.
“The announcement has disturbed the screening of Indian films in Kathmandu, but we are moving to court against it,” Uddin told AFP on Monday.
In India, ‘Adipurush’ has also courted controversy, including for its depictions of monkey deity Hanuman, Rama and Sita.
Screenwriter Manoj Muntashir Shukla and the film’s producers have said some “objectionable” dialogue would be changed.
“I wrote more than 4,000 dialogues for Adipurush, emotions were hurt by some five,” Shukla tweeted on Sunday.
The movie, which relied heavily on visual effects, cost roughly $61 million to produce, but it only made close to half of that in its first two days of release.
Several times in the past, Nepal has outlawed Indian movies.
In response to concerns about its assertion that Buddha, who is thought to have been born in Nepal, was actually born in India, the Bollywood film “Chandni Chowk to China” was banned in 2009.
To reduce what they claimed was New Delhi’s influence in the Himalayan country, a hardline Communist party asked in 2012 that theaters stop showing Bollywood films.
