Actor Deepika Padukone attends a premiere during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival. Photo / Getty
Actor Deepika Padukone attends a premiere during the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival. Photo / Getty
Bollywood is in chaos after death threats to a female star forced producers to postpone a much-anticipated movie.
Right-wing Hindu groups have become incensed by the film which its rumoured depiction of a romantic dream sequence involving a mythical Hindu queen and an invading Muslim sultan.
Actress Deepika Padukone attends the Michael Kors Collection Fall 2017 runway show at Spring Studios on February 15, 2017 in New York City. Photo / Getty
However, the filmmakers haverepeatedly denied the movie includes such a scene.
On Sunday, even a member of India's Hindu nationalist ruling party has offered 100 million rupees ($2 million AUS) to anyone who beheads the lead actor, Deepika Padukone, and the director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, according to AP reports.
The film, Padmavati, is based on a 16th century Sufi epic poem in which a Rajput queen chooses to kill herself rather than be captured by the Muslim sultan of Delhi, Allaudin Khilji.
Over centuries of its retelling, the epic has come to be seen as history, despite little evidence.
Padukone plays Padmini, the legendary queen who committed "jauhar", the medieval Rajput practice in which female royals walked into funeral fires to embrace death over the dishonour of being taken captive.
Padmavati has been in trouble since the beginning of the year, with fringe groups in the western state of Rajasthan attacking the film's set, threatening to burn down cinemas that show it and even physically attacking Bhansali.
Actors Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone pose together during a portrait session. Photo / Getty
Most of the anger appears to stem from allegations that Bhansali filmed a romantic dream sequence between the protagonists, which Bhansali has denied.
Earlier in November, the head of the Rajput Karni Sena in Rajasthan said Padukone should have her nose cut - a symbol of public humiliation - for being part of a film that allegedly insulted the famed queen.
After months of intimidation and protests, the producers of the movie, Viacom18 Motion Pictures, issued a statement Sunday announcing its December 1 release date had been "voluntarily deferred," sparking concerns over issues relating to freedom of speech in the world's largest democracy, according to CNN.
