Singham producers lose 75 lakhs due to KaRaVe protest

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.