Valentine’s Day saw Shree Rajput Karni Sena holding a press conference to justify their stand against Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming film Padmavati.

“We are not taking offence towards every form of art or as a matter of fact against any filmmaker who wants to tell a period drama,” said Lokendra Singh Kalvi, founder of Shree Rajput Karni Sena. “But tampering the glory of Rajput history is something that needs to be considered with great amount of seriousness.” He also reminded the gathered press that Rajput glory had been dimmed by Ashutosh Gowariker’s 2008 film, Jodhaa Akbar. Perhaps Kalvi is upset that there wasn’t a Rajput equivalent of a bare-chested Akbar (played by Hrithik Roshan) practicing his swordplay in Gowariker’s fictional account of Emperor Akbar’s relationship with his Hindu wife, Jodha.

“We have been working for more than 10 years to safeguard the glory of the Rajput community and our ancestors. We are proud of our heritage and will not tolerate any conspiracy that compromises our self-respect,” said Kalvi.

Kalvi said that the his organisation would be approaching the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to set up a “pre-Censor Board” to monitor all period films and prevent any misrepresentation of history. “In our opinion, a pre-censor board consisting of experts should supervise and monitor any historical film to be made. This will help in overcoming the complications which come up during or after the film is made,” he said.

In an effort to resolve this issue, Bhansali has assured the organisation that there will be no ‘intimate’ scenes between the actors playing roles of Allaudin Khilji and Padmavati. Sanjay Leela Bhansali Productions has, according to Shree Rajput Karni Sena, officially agreed to the group’s demands including this one:”Whatever be the relationship between Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in real life, there should be no romantic sequence between Alauddin Khilji and Rani Padmavati shown in the film.”

However, Kalvi appears to not be sufficiently mollified and is particularly miffed with the Central Board of Film Certification. “Few days back, when we met the censor board authorities, they told us that no action can be taken before the entire film is made and comes to us for review,” Kalvi complained.