Pathan song ‘Besharam rang’: MP minister sends out a warning

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra has taken offence to Deepika Padukone’s costume in the Pathaan song Besharam Rang and has threatened to “consider” whether the film will be released in his state if certain scenes are not “corrected.”

The song, Besharam Rang, featuring Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan, was released recently and has been drawing widely contrasting reactions.

Mishra, the spokesperson of the state government, also added in the same breath that Padukone has been a supporter of the “Tukde Tukde gang.”

Also read: Saffron bikini controversy over ‘Pathaan’ movie song ‘Besharam Rang’

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) often uses the term “tukde-tukde gang,” which was coined in the aftermath of a JNU protest in Delhi in 2016. The actor made headlines when she dropped in at the campus to express solidarity with protesting students in 2020.

Veiled threat to block release

According to Mishra, the costumes seen in the song are “highly objectionable” and it is clearly visible that the song was filmed out of a “contaminated mentality.”

“I would request to correct the scenes and her (Padukone’s) costumes (in the song); otherwise, whether this film should be allowed in Madhya Pradesh or not will be a question to be considered,” Mishra told reporters in Mhow in Indore district.

Pathaan, a Hindi-language action-thriller, is scheduled for release on January 25, 2023.

Also read: SRK visits Vaishno Devi shrine before ‘Pathaan’ release; epitome of secularism, say fans

This is not the first time Mishra, a senior BJP leader in Madhya Pradesh, has taken offence to films and filmmakers. In October, he warned the makers of the Bollywood film Adipurush, based on the epic Ramayana, of legal action if scenes showing Hindu religious figures in a “wrong” way are not removed.

In July, he directed that an FIR be filed over a controversial poster of filmmaker Leena Manimekalai’s documentary Kaali after an outrage.

(With agency inputs)