On March 13, a pre-release screening of Bastar - The Naxal Story was held at the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s (JNU) Convention Centre auditorium. The screening, organized by the Rashtriya Kala Manch, led to widespread uproar as the varsity’s election committee had not granted permission for it. Moreover, Sudipto Sen’s directorial venture—which focuses on the Maoist insurgency, and alleges that students at JNU had ‘celebrated’ the killing of 76 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans—was viewed by many as a means to influence the JNU Students’ Union elections that is slated for March 22. 

In the latest development, the screening has evoked such polarizing response that the Rashtriya Kala Manch has pre-emptively cancelled the screening of another controversial movie, JNU: Jahangir National University. 

The title of director Vinay Mishra’s upcoming movie— starring Ravi Kishan, Piyush Mishra and Urvashi Rautela—is a blatant wordplay on the prestigious university in Delhi.

A student, on condition of anonymity, tells mid-day, “It has been unanimously decided that the film won’t be screened. Regardless of which party wins the student election, slander against the university’s name will not be tolerated.” 

The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has written to Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit to pursue the matter legally. Mid-day got an excerpt from the letter that reads, “This film’s [poster] has a saffron image of the country with the text [reading], ‘Can one educational institution break the nation?’ This shows exactly what the film intends to portray. They want to parrot the popular line of calling JNU as anti-national and against the people of the country… We are with the vast majority of secular and democratic-minded citizens of our country. We request the Vice Chancellor to take action against this movie.”

Pandit has yet to respond on the matter. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) that has allegiance to the RSS has stayed mum. The student adds, “They won’t come out and condemn this movie and its narrative that seeks to demonize this university’s students. For now, the film screening being [cancelled] is a win, but something needs to be done against this defamation.”