Pro-Kannada activists swarm theatres demanding offensive dialogue be deleted from the film; producers face loss of over Rs 75 lakh in two days

A dialogue delivered by Ajay Devgn in the movie Singham has stirred up a hornets all across the state and the Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV) went on the rampage and trashed posters, damaged cinema hall windowpanes and raised slogans protesting screening of the film.

While the protesters claimed that the word used to refer to Kannadigas in the film has hurt the sentiments of Karnataka, producers have faced a huge revenue loss and in just two days they have lost about Rs 75 lakh.

With over 40 prints all across the state, the movie was going great guns and was set to rake in Box Office numbers, but KRV decided to halt screenings until their demands were met.

Backed by strong police presence, producers of the film held meetings with KRV activists and agreed to delete the 'offensive' part. "Producers have faced a huge revenue loss and all the online bookings of the shows were affected.

In just two days our losses have gone up to Rs 75 lakh. Besides this, the activists also destroyed flex prints, marketing collaterals, advertisements and damaged the windows in a few theatres, " claimed Prashanth Sambargi, the facilitator between Reliance Big Entertainment and the KRV.

KRV still furious

To counter losses, Devgn, along with director Rohit Shetty and producers Reliance Big Entertainment, sent an apology letter to the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce (KFCC) and made a public apology.

"They have profusely apologised to us and we have accepted their apology, " said Basanth Kumar Patil, President, KFCC. However, he added that the bigger problem lies with the Censor Board, which approved the abusive dialogue in the first place.

"We have written to the board and highlighted the flaw to them, " he added. While the KFCC, which was backing the KRV protests was quick in accepting the apology, the activists did not budge.

"They have agreed to delete the offensive parts of the movie from screening in Karnataka. But our bigger demand now is that they take out these parts from screening across the country, " said Nagendra Babu, president (Bangalore), KRV.

He further argued, "If they have faced losses, it is their own fault. They should have thought about this before insulting Kannadigas across the state and country."

More demands

Meanwhile, defining the deletion of the scenes from all India screenings as a Herculean task, the producers have also voiced their problems.

"The movie will become shorter by about 7 minutes and an all Indian deletion will involve a lot of effort. We have been receiving calls from all quarters and a lot of bad blood has developed. We are now trying to settle the issue, " explained Prashanth Sambargi.

While the cast and crew of the film are working hard towards making it acceptable even after release, the KRV is making sure that the controversy does die down any time soon.