MID-DAY (December 31, 2017)

A Mewar royal on Saturday penned a letter to Prasoon Joshi, Chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), slamming him for certifying Sanjay Leela Bhansalis controversial film "Padmavati" without his consent. Maharajkumar Vishvaraj Singh, son of Mahendra Singh Mewar -- the 76th Maharana of the Mewar dynasty and a former Lok Sabha member -- has written the letter, a copy of which is with IANS.

Vishvaraj Singh said he was invited by Joshi to be part of an examining committee meeting to assist the CBFC in the process of certification on December 28 to which he requested some clarifications. The decision was taken in the meeting in the presence of Joshi. The special panel consisted of Arvind Singh from Udaipur, Dr Chandramani Singh and Professor K.K. Singh of Jaipur University.

However, due to communication problems, Vishvaraj Singh was not able to attend the meeting and got to know on Saturday that CBFC has suggested to give a U/A certificate "along with some modifications" to "Padmavati" and has asked the makers to "likely" change the movie's title to "Padmavat".

"It is very clear that the movie is about my family. Cosmetic changes like the proposed change in name will not change the fact that the movie refers to real places, my ancestors and other persons in history with their names continuing to remain the same," Vishvaraj Singh said.

Through such changes, CBFC has "reduced itself to endorsing the propagation of fiction about heroic personalities and living families", he said. "Your stating one thing and doing another renders the CBFC to be just as ignoble as those distorting and seeking to profit from the history of this country and my family," he added.

Vishvaraj Singh also mentioned that he earlier wrote a letter on December 22 stating that "....the fact remains that my questions are relevant for every member of the proposed committee and without resolving the same, the committee's findings shall remain a mirage".