Lucknow: After giving a tax exemption for ‘The Kashmir Files’, now the Yogi Adityanath led government in Uttar Pradesh has announced tax exemption for Akshay Kumar-starrer ‘ Samrat Prithviraj’.
The chief minister announced this after watching a special screening of the film in Lucknow on Thursday.
He appreciated the film and said that it was worth watching. “It is a very good family film about our history and people should watch it with their families,” he said.
The chief minister also gifted ‘One District One Product’ (ODOP) products to Akshay Kumar, who along with Manushi Chillar, was present at the screening. The film releases in theatres on Friday.
Prithviraj Chauhan was a king from the Chauhan (Chahamana) dynasty who ruled the territory of Sapadalaksha, Rajasthan. Samrat Prithviraj’s movie is based on the life of King Prithviraj Chauhan.
The education ministry needs to take cognisance of the contribution of Hindu kings and balance out their stories with those of Mughal emperors who enjoy more space in school texts, Bollywood star Akshay Kumar said on Wednesday.
“There were only three-four lines about Samrat Prithviraj in the history books that I read. Thanks to this film, I got to know so much about him. I don’t think anyone else also knew about him, Kumar told PTI in an interview.
“When I was talking to my son about him (Prithviraj), he said ‘I know about the British empire, Mughal empire, but who’s he?’ So it’s a sad thing that we don’t know about our own kings. There were only a few lines about Rana Pratap, Rani of Jhansi. But there are a lot of chapters on Mughals,” he added.
Kumar described his film, which was earlier titled “Prithviraj” and was rechristened last week following protests by the Shree Rajput Karni Sena, as an “educational film set in a commercial way”.
“I would appeal to the education ministry to try and (bring about) balance and bring our culture, Hindu kings also in our textbooks,” Kumar said.
Kashmiri Pandits have managed to become a propaganda tool that is being used to rouse anti-Muslim and anti-Kashmiri passions in the country. After the movie was released the atmosphere of anti-minority hate has permeated deep in society over the last eight years or so.
Written and directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri of iamBuddha, the exodus drama also stars Mithun Chakraborty, Darshan Kumaar, Pallavi Joshi, Bhasha Sumbli and Chinmay Mandlekar.
The Kashmir Files is supposed to be a movie on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits who lost their lives due to targeted killings in 1990. Directed by Vivek Agnihotri, who is known for being right-wing, the movie is based on video interviews of first-generation Kashmiri Pandit victims. It was released on March 11 and has since sparked controversy.
(with inputs from IANS)
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