Delhi High Court rejects urgent listing of plea by Hindu Sena to ban movie Adipurush

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday denied urgent hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition seeking ban on the movie Adipurush. The case was mentioned before the vacation bench of Justices Tara Vitasta Ganju and Amit Mahajan. The Court said that there was no urgency in the matter and it will be considered on June 30.The Counsel appearing for the petitioner-organisation, Hindu Sena told the Bench that the movie has several controversial scenes which are even affecting India's relations with other countries. "The movie affects India's international relations. Even Nepal has banned the film," the counsel said. However, the Bench responded that the movie has already been released and there is no urgency in the matter.

"There is no urgency, sir. Please come back on June 30," Justice Ganju said. The movie which stars the likes of Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan and Kriti Sanon was released in theatres on June 16. Since then, several people have raised objections to certain dialogues of the movie and the depictions of epic characters like Hanuman and Ravana. Vishnu Gupta, National President of Hindu Sena filed the present PIL in the Delhi High Court seeking ban on the film. As per the plea, Hindu gods and characters like Lord Rama, Sita, Hanuman and Ravan have been depicted in an inaccurate manner and their description in the film is contrary to what is described in the epic Ramayana. The petition said that depiction of characters like Ravana, played by Saif Ali Khan, is completely detached from ‘Indian civilisation’ and his bearded look is “hurting the sentiments of Hindu community as the Hindu Brahmin Ravana is shown making ghastly (sic) in a wrong manner”. Adipurush was released on 16 June 2023 to mostly negative reviews from critics, who praised the soundtrack and cast performances but criticised Raut's direction, screenplay, dialogues, visuals and deviation from the source material. Adipurush, which was off to a blockbuster start at the box office, almost collapsed on Monday, raking in only about Rs 20 crore in India. Now, as per early trends, the Om-Raut directorial further saw a dip in its earnings on Tuesday (June 20).