Protesters from a local gymnasium blackened actor Emraan Hashmi's face on the posters of his latest film ‘Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji' and burnt his effigy, this week.

A group of gym instructors took the management of the Smruti Cinema in Nagpur city by surprise, when they barged into the theatre premises and began blackening Emraan's face on the posters of the recently released romantic comedy, directed by the award-winning Madhur Bhandarkar.

It took the bystanders and the management a while to realize that they were upset about the portrayal of the actor's character as a gym instructor in the movie.

"The protesters claimed that Emraan was shown in bad light and that his portions should be deleted, " informed the theatre's owner Akshaye Rathi, who refused to relent to their demands, even as they resorted to violence, pulling down posters and burning them along with an effigy of Emraan Hashmi.

This fierce form of protest was surprising, as the actor has been popular in the region and many of his films have fared well in central India territories in the recent past. It can be noted that a few months ago, Emraan had enjoyed a massive fan following at the same theatre, when he visited it to promote his movie ‘Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai'.