Padmavati controversy: Why did CBFC refuse to clear Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film?

Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmavati has taken the nation by storm, with a new controversy around the film every day. Fringe and vigilante groups, politicians, members of royal families have vehemently opposed the film’s release as they assume that Padmavati might have depicted Chittorgarh’s 13th century queen Padmavati in a bad light.  Deepika Padukone in a still from Padmavati. Facebook A new controversy arose when the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) got miffed at Bhansali after he showed the film to news personalities without even getting the film duly certified by the censor board. A few days back, the CBFC had rejected the certification application of Padmavati citing it “incomplete”. Beyond that, the reasons remained mostly unknown. The Hindustan Times got in touch with the CBFC CEO Anurag Srivastav and he explained what exactly were the parameters on which Bhansali’s film failed to get certification. “The disclaimer had not been mentioned by the makers. We need an official thing from the makers about what your stand on this actually is. Is it based on fiction, or based on historical facts - you have to put it completely. By leaving that out, the document was (deemed) incomplete, because, for examination purposes, we need to know what they (makers) are saying,” said Srivastav. Padmavati stars Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh and Shahid Kapoor in lead roles. The film was supposed to release on 1 December, but the makers decided to voluntarily defer the release of the film till the controversy around it settles.