Every year, we are introduced to a bunch of people who wake up right before a film’s release, create an absolute ruckus, blatantly issue threats on national television and assume that regular people actually give two hoots about their regressive views. When they realise that absolutely nobody has boycotted the movie they are protesting, they go back to their dens. This time, they have come out against Sunny Leone’s biopic which is titled Karenjit Kaur: The Untold Story of Sunny Leone.
The Akali Dal and the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) have demanded that the word ‘Kaur’ be dropped from the title. “She should not have been used the word ‘Kaur’ as it was her past and she had left it far behind. Secondly, her act has hurt Sikh sentiments as the word is considered very sacred in the faith and was blessed by the Guru,” said Diljit Singh Bedi, spokesperson of the SGPC to the Hindustan Times.
This takes us back to that time, quite recently, when Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s movie Padmaavat was given more importance than the country’s poor health record. Politicians had claimed that the film was an insult to the legendary Queen Padmavati and some goons had even placed a bounty on the film’s cast. Some idiot somewhere wanted Deepika Padukone to be beheaded and had received major coverage in the media. Finally, the film did release and there were absolutely no ‘objectionable’ scenes between Deepika and Ranveer Singh in the movie. In fact, the film was declared a super-hit and minted crores of rupees. However, SLB and his team had to change the name of the film to Padmaavat, dropping the earlier name Padmavati.
Want further proof that people are just waiting to get offended? Shah Rukh Khan’s Billu Barber was renamed to Billu before its release because Mumbai’s barbers protested to the word ‘barber’ being added in the title. “I don’t think it’s wrong, they have their own take on it. Instead of going to and fro on who’s wrong, we decided on the posters and hoardings … we’ll stick a paper on the word ‘barber’ wherever it can be done,” SRK had told CNN-IBN at that time.
Another film starring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone, Goliyon Ki Raasleela Ram-Leela was initially called Ram-Leela. However, SLB and team had to rename it because religious groups protested against it, stating that the film title gave a bad name to Lord Rama.
(Header credits: Sunny Leone on Instagram)
