Singham producers lose 75 lakhs due to KaRaVe protest
News
oi-Kalyani Prasad Keshri
By Kalyani Prasad Keshri
Karnataka
Rakshana
Vedike
staged
a
protest
against
the
screening
of
Rohit
Shetty's
Singham
starring
Ajay
Devgn.
The
protestants
demanded
deletion
of
the
offensive
dialogues
delivered
by
Devgn
in
the
film.
Due
to
the
protest
producers
face
loss
of
over
Rs
75
lakh
in
just
two
days.
Karnataka
Rakshana
Vedike
(KRV)
trashed
posters,
damaged
cinema
hall
windowpanes
and
raised
slogans
protesting
screening
of
Singham.
The
protestants
claimed
that
the
word
used
to
refer
to
Kannadigas
in
the
film
has
hurt
the
sentiments
of
the
people
in
Karnataka.
With
over
40
prints
distributed
all
across
Karnatake,
Singham
was
all
set
to
rock
the
Box
Office
when
KaRaVe
decided
to
halt
the
screenings
until
their
demands
were
met.
This
resulted
in
the
producers
facing
a
huge
revenue
loss
of
about
Rs
75
lakh
in
just
two
days
of
halted
screening.
The
producers
of
Singham,
backed
by
strong
police
presence,
held
a
meeting
with
KaRaVe
activists
and
decided
upon
deleting
the
'offensive'
part.
"Producers
have
faced
a
huge
revenue
loss
and
all
the
online
bookings
of
the
shows
were
affected.
In
just
two
days
our
losses
have
gone
up
to
Rs
75
lakh.
Besides
this,
the
activists
also
destroyed
flex
prints,
marketing
collaterals,
advertisements
and
damaged
the
windows
in
a
few
theatres," claimed
Prashanth
Sambargi,
the
facilitator
between
Reliance
Big
Entertainment
and
the
KRV(Mid
Day).
Actor
Ajay
Devgn
and
director
Rohit
Shetty
along
with
producers
Reliance
Big
Entertainment,
sent
an
apology
letter
to
the
Karnataka
Film
Chamber
of
Commerce
(KFCC)
and
made
a
public
apology.
The
KFCC
president
confirmed
that
they
have
received
a
letter
and
thus
have
accepted
the
apology.
However,
KFCC
added
that
the
bigger
problem
is
with
the
Censor
Board,
which
approved
the
abusive
dialogue
in
Singham.
The
KFCC
have
written
to
the
Censor
Board
and
have
highlighted
the
flaw
to
them.
Though
the
KFCC
have
accepted
the
apology,
the
activists
did
not
budge.
The
KRV
puts
forward
a
bigger
demand
and
wants
the
entire
parts
to
be
removed
from
the
screening
across
the
country.
On
the
revenue
loss
the
protestants
argued
that
it
was
because
of
the
makers
own
fault.
“They
should
have
thought
about
this
before
insulting
Kannadigas
across
the
state
and
country," told
Sambargi.
On
the
demand
of
deleting
the
entire
dialogue
across
the
country,
which
is
definitely
a
tedious
task,
the
producers
voiced
back
their
problems.
While
the
cast
and
crew
of
Singham
are
working
hard
towards
making
it
acceptable
even
after
release,
the
KRV
is
working
towards
solving
the
issues.