New Delhi: Bowing down to pressure from right-wing groups, the Maharashtra government has written to the Union government asking to stop the release of Marathi film Khalid ka Shivaji.

The film’s trailer shows a young boy named Khalid who takes inspiration from Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.

Maharashtra minister Ashish Shelar, while speaking against the film that screened at Cannes earlier this year, said that his government would not tolerate the “perversion of history”, the Hindu reported.

"The government has taken a serious note of the complaints received about the movie. There is a demand to ban the movie. The Central Board of Film Certification comes under the jurisdiction of the Union government. We want to examine how the movie received Censor Board certification – if the committee had studied the movie properly. We also want to know how the movie was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, and if there is any mischief in it. We are going to probe all of it,” Shelar said.

The protests against the film picked up wind after sloganeering against it at a recent state festival.

The Congress has criticised the Maharashtra government, saying that it is a “ridiculous and condemnable attempt to diminish the towering stature of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj”.

Congress leader Sachin Sawant while citing historical texts questioned the Maharashtra government’s move. “Why can’t Maharaj be Khalid’s hero? Why is the BJP so disturbed if Muslims identify with the values of Shivaji Maharaj? Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj was a Rayatecha Raja  – a king of the people –  not a ruler of any one community,” Sawant said.

‘Muslims were an integral part of Shivaji’s army’

“It is absolutely unbecoming of the state government to request the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to halt the release of the film Khalid ka Shivaji, based merely on its trailer — which, notably, is not even particularly objectionable – and without any genuine understanding of the film’s actual content,” Sawant said.

Referring to the BJP’s attempt to co-opt Shivaji Maharaj has a Hindutva icon, Sawant said, “the BJP is intent on portraying Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj solely as an icon of Hindutvavad – a narrow, bigoted, and conservative image that is factually incorrect – rather than as a symbol of Manavatavad [Humanism]. This is a ridiculous and condemnable attempt to diminish the towering stature of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and a complete disservice to the progressive, inclusive ideology exemplified by his life and legacy,”

“It is a well-documented historical fact that Muslims were an integral part of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s army. His personal bodyguard was a Muslim,” Sawant added.

The Congress leader also questioned the release of historically inaccurate and polarising films like The Kashmir Files and The Kerala Story. He asked how these “and several other propaganda-driven movies – most of which carried disclaimers stating they were fictional and bore little resemblance to historical fact - receive clearance over the past 11 years?”

“Regarding the mosque on Raigad Fort, the historical references are credible and well-documented: In New History of the Marathas – Volume 1 by eminent historian and Padma Bhushan awardee G.S. Sardesai (also known as Riyasatkaar), it is clearly stated on pages 264–265 that Shivaji Maharaj had a mosque constructed for his Muslim soldiers. Similarly, in Raigadchi Jivankatha [The Life Story of Raigad], written by the renowned historian Shantaram Vishnu Awlaskar and published in 1962 by the Maharashtra State Board of Literature and Culture, it is recorded on page seven that a mosque was indeed built on Raigad Fort under Shivaji’s rule. The Board has publicly taken full responsibility for the authenticity of this research. The mosque is also referenced in the writings of Prem Hanvate. Furthermore, in Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, written in 1907 by Shivaji’s first biographer Krishnaji Keluskar, it is clearly affirmed that Shivaji Maharaj upheld secular values and ensured that neither Muslim subjects nor their places of worship were ever harmed in his kingdom.

Thus, the historical reference to the mosque is not anecdotal or fringe — it is supported by well-researched, peer-reviewed scholarship, including work backed by the Government of Maharashtra,” Sawant said.

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