Threats, stone-pelting, police lathicharge and security bandobast. This was the order of the day across the state as a film with a controversial title, Jo Bole So Nihaal, hit the halls on Friday. While on screen, Sunny Deol played the reel hero as a Punjab police constable, outside theatres across Punjab, the men in khaki struggled to keep agitators at bay. In Jalandhar, two policemen and a person who had come to watch the film were injured as agitators hurled stones. The day started with about 50 workers of various Sikh organisations converging at a bus stand around 8 am. They then called up Narindra Cinema hall authorities and told them to cancel the show. When their demand was turned down, the agitators started blocking traffic. They even entered the hall and threatened the audience. By 9.45 am, they started hurling stones. The protests continued for about half-an-hour, till the police intervened and resorted to a lathi-charge. DSP Charanjit Singh said one of the protesters, identified as Gogi, also had an air gun with which he threatened the police and the people who had come to see the film. While I P S Chadha, a partner in Ginni Arts which has produced the film, said the protests were politically motivated, SGPC’s media in-charge Diljit Singh Bedi demanded that screening be stopped for the sake of law and order. In Amritsar, the film was screened at New Rialto cinema hall amid heavy security as Dal Khalsa, Khalsa Panchayat and various other Sikh organisations demonstrated in front of the hall. The situation eased only after senior Shiromani Akali Dal leaders, including PAC member Manjit Singh Calcutta, intervened. Calcutta, however, took exception to the film’s title and also objected to the way the Akal Takht cleared the film. ‘‘It is not under the purview of the Akal Takht to give a green signal to the film. That too, in such a hurried manner,’’ he said. SGPC tells Censor Board to stall release CHANDIGARH: The controversy surrounding Jo Bole So Nihaal deepened with SGPC Secretary Dalmegh Singh writing to the Censor Board, objecting to its release. Dalmegh Singh, in his letter written on behalf of the SGPC, stated that the apex religious body of the Sikhs has recorded its objections as ‘‘the movie and its title play with religious sentiments of the Sikh community by using the words ‘Jo Bole So Nihaal’, which incidentally form the concluding part of most sacred daily prayers of Sikhs’’. So, it cannot be used in the manner as depicted and used in the ‘‘masala movie’’. The letter also states that the SGPC does not permit the use of Gurbani, any quotations from the Guru Granth Sahib in a form which is inconsistent with Sikh principles. The title has no connection with the objectives of the movie, the letter added. —ENS
