A public interest litigation (PIL) was filed Wednesday against the producers of Shyam Benegal's controversial biopic "Bose - The Forgotten Hero", just hours before the film's premiere here.

As producers Sahara One Motion Pictures went ahead with the premiere of the film on the life of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the PIL in the Calcutta High Court sought to stop the release, objecting to the fact that it showed the independence hero as a married person.

The name of the biopic has also evoked controversy as the litigants objected to the use of word "forgotten" to describe the freedom fighter.

The PIL has been filed by five researchers and deponents to the Mukherjee Commission, probing the mystery surrounding Netaji's whereabouts after the 1945 Taihoku aircrash in Japan. Their move came only hours before the film's scheduled premiere at 89 Cinemas cineplex at 7 p.m.

"We have filed the PIL to protest showing Netaji married to Austrian lady Emily Schenkl and also for calling him a forgotten hero," said lawyer and Netaji researcher Rudrajyoti Bhattacharjee.

"Despite our requests, the romantic scenes showing a married Netaji were not removed forcing us to move court," Bhattacharjee tells.

The group had written to censor board chief Sharmila Tagore and secretaries of the central home and information and broadcasting ministries last month against the film.

"We have corroborative proof that Netaji's marriage to Austrian lady Emily Schenkl is a concocted story. While Netaji's family members claim that he got married to Emily in 1937, according to Netaji's passport and other documents, he had applied for a visa to visit China on Nov 23, 1939 mentioning his marital status as 'single'," Mukherjee Commission deponent and researcher Jayanta Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury and others had also sent a legal notice to Benegal two years back to refrain from showing that Bose died in an air crash.

Referring to the other objection naming Bose a forgotten hero, Benegal had said: "I know in Bengal he is not a forgotten hero. But in rest of India he is indeed a forgotten hero and people should know who he was and what he really achieved. So the film has been titled 'Bose - The Forgotten Hero' though 'Bose - The Last Hero' was a working title for the film."

Earlier, the much-hyped May 5 premiere of the film, to be held at an army ground here for a new Guinness Book of World Records, had to be cancelled.

The film captures Bose's journey from 1941 to 1945 in the backdrop of the Second World War and the exploits of the Indian National Army founded by him to free India from British rule.