The Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday decided to accord tax-free status to the upcoming film ‘Samrat Prithviraj’.
In a tweet during the day, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “The film on the life of great warrior Samrat Prithviraj in which Akshay Kumar is in the lead role is declared tax free in Madhya Pradesh so that maximum number of youths see the movie and learn about him and a feeling of love inculcate in them towards their motherland.
The film, starring Kumar and debutant Manushi Chhillar, a former Miss World, is directed by Chandra Prakash Dwivedi and will be released on June 3.
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.
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