‘Besharam Rang’ row, death threats and boycott calls: Controversies courted by Pathaan

Shah Rukh Khan has arrived on the big screen and how! The actor has set the cash registers ringing out loud and the excitement is not going to cease anytime soon. ‘Pathaan’ is racing ahead at the box office with massive numbers, after bracing a host of controversies ahead of its release. Take a look:

The excitement for the first song from ‘Pathaan’ was high, but the moment it was launched, ‘Besharam Rang’ offended a lot of people! Deepika’s saffron bikini became a subject of protest across the country. Posters were torn and a demand to remove the saffron bikini scene was made, but despite all the objection, it made it to the final cut of the movie.

Shah Rukh Khan also faced a death threat during the run up to the release of ‘Pathaan’! Ayodhya seer Jagadguru Paramhans Acharya Maharaj had reportedly stated that ‘Pathaan’ had hurt sentiments of Hindus and that the movie promoted jihad. He had stated, “We have burnt the poster of 'jihadi' actor Shah Rukh Khan. The day I see him, I will burn him alive.”

'Pathaan' faced as many as 10 cuts from the Censor Board. The makers were asked to remove buttocks, side-pose and sensuous dance movements during the lyrics "Bahut Tang Kiya” from the song 'Besharam Rang'. Several dialogue changes were also made to the movie, like the word 'PMO' was removed and the word 'PM' was replaced with either President or Minister in several places, 'Ashok Chakra' was changed to Veer Puraskar and Mrs Bharatmata to Hamari Bharatmata. After these changes, ‘Pathaan’ was given a UA certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification.

While right now everyone is raving about ‘Pathaan’ on social media, the film faced a lot of backlash ahead of its release. In tune with the cancel culture, Twitter users had started trending #BoycottPathaan on social media. Reasons for the same varied from users getting offended by Deepika's saffron bikini to others trashing the film over South content.