CBFC chief calls Mewar royal family to certify Padmavati

Prasoon Joshi, the chief of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), called Vishvaraj Singh of the Mewar royal family on Thursday with the request to join a panel to help it certify Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Padmavati.

Singh said he has written to the CBFC seeking clarifications on certain aspects of the film that stars Deepika Padukone as queen Padmini, considered by Rajputs as a symbol of the community's tradition of putting honour above everything else.

A section of historians, however, doubt the existence of the queen and say she is a fictional character first portrayed in a 16th-century poem as having committed jauhar, the medieval practice in which female royals walked into funeral fires to embrace death over the dishonour of being taken captive.