'Adipurush' row: Kathmandu bans all Indian film screenings

The radical move comes amid a row over 'Adipurush' and Sita's place of birth, which protestors claim was Nepal.

Indian movies have been banned in Kathmandu and police have been deployed to ensure that film theatres do not screen any films made in India, Kathmandu Mayor Balen Shah's Secretariat told Online Khabar on Sunday.

“All 17 film halls have been told not to screen Indian films,” his secretariat told the publication.

The radical move comes amid the row over newly-released film Adipurush, which shows that Sita was born in India. Protestors, however, vehemently claim that she was born in Nepal.

Shah had even warned the filmmakers earlier that all Indian films would be banned in Kathmandu if the reference was not removed.

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Meanwhile, the writer of the film, Manoj Muntashir Shukla, has said that Nepal was a part of India before 1903, hence Janak's daughter was depicted as being born in India.

Shukla, who has penned the Hindi dialogues and songs of the retelling of the Ramayana, said the amended lines will be added to the film by this week.

"...For me there is nothing greater than your feelings. I can give countless arguments in favour of my dialogues, but this will not lessen your pain. Me and the producer-director of the film have decided that we will revise some of the dialogues which are hurting you and they will be added to the film this week," Shukla said in a statement shared on his official Twitter account.

Adipurush, which was released across the country in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Tamil on Friday, stars Prabhas as Raghav (Ram), Kriti Sanon as Janaki (Sita) and Saif Ali Khan as Lankesh (Raavan).

(With PTI inputs)