Nitish brushes aside spat over shooting 'Padmavati' in Bihar

With his two Cabinet ministers sparring over inviting Sanjay Leela Bhansali to shoot "Padmavati" in Bihar after violent protests against the film in Rajasthan, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today said he was not aware of any such development.
"I do not know at all about the movie and am also not aware of what the two ministers said about it," Kumar told reporters.
"I have poor general knowledge about films," he said.
Alleging "lawlessness" in BJP-ruled Rajasthan in the wake of Karni Sena activists manhandling Bhansali on the sets of "Padmavati" in Jaipur on January 27, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav had recently invited the director to shoot the movie in Bihar. His father and RJD President Lalu Prasad had echoed similar views.

Bihar Industries minister Jai Kumar Singh, who belongs to JD(U) and is a Rajput by caste, had, however, opposed the invitation by the Yadavs.
Singh had said at Muzaffarpur last week that he would oppose shooting of the film in Bihar "tooth and nail."
"I will simply not allow the shoot to happen, not as a minister but as a Kshatriya," he had said.
The fringe groups have found fault with the film for supposedly alluding to a romance between Rajput princess Padmini and the 14th-century sultan of Delhi, Alauddin Khilji.