NCP leader Jitendra Awhad, others booked for stopping screening of Marathi film 'Har Har Mahadev'

Leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Jitendra Awhad, and his supporters have been booked for forcibly stopping the screening of the Marathi film 'Har Har Mahadev' at a multiplex in Thane, near Mumbai, on Monday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded Awhad's arrest for hurting 'national sentiments.'

Awhad's supporters also assaulted a viewer who attempted to intervene. They claimed that the film depicts an incorrect history of Chhatrapati Shivaji.

Awhad and over 100 of his supporters have now been charged under IPC sections 141 (unlawful assembly), 146 (rioting), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), and 504 (insult with intent to provoke a breach of peace).

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ram Kadam said that the current government is not like the previous Uddhav Thackeray administration and that anyone who violated the law would face the consequences.

A day earlier, former Rajya Sabha member and Kolhapur royal family scion Sambhaji Chhatrapati warned that if facts in any upcoming films based on legendary warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj are found to be distorted, he will oppose such films and make every effort to prevent their release.

Sambhaji Chhatrapati, a descendant of Shivaji Maharaj, had also expressed dissatisfaction with the recent Marathi films 'Har Har Mahadev' and 'Vedat Marathe Veer Daudale Saat' (an upcoming project).

"Members of the 'Sambhaji Brigade' disrupted a Har Har Mahadev screening at a Pune theatre and warned the owner. In 'Har Har Mahadev,' history is distorted, whereas in 'Vedat Marathe Veer Daudale Sath,' the depiction of 'Mavle' (Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's soldiers) is frightful," alleged Santosh Shinde, the leader of the Sambhaji Brigade.

Also Read: Sharad Kelkar's 'Har Har Mahadev' faces wrath of Maratha outfits; screenings shut in Pune, Thane

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• BJP
• Chhatrapati Shivaji
• Har Har Mahadev
• Jitendra Awhad
• NCP
• Thane