Raees in trouble as Shia community objects to scene in trailer of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer

Shah Rukh Khan may have met Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray to ensure a smooth release of his next, the crime drama Raees. But the theatrical trailer of his film is now seeing opposition from another community, [caption id=“attachment_3157442” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Shah Rukh Khan in a still from Raees. Courtesy YouTube[/caption] Hindustan Times reports that some members of the Shia community have expressed their objection to a shot in the trailer of Rahul Dholakia’s Raees in which Khan is seeing jumping over a procession during a chase sequence. The procession are carrying the alam mubarak, a religious structure of the Shia community of Islam. The holy structure is considered sacred in Islam and jumping over it comes across as a disrespect to the religious structure. Thus, the representatives of the community have written to the Central Board of Film Certification to remove the scene from the film. Also, the members of the community in Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh are planning to request the district administration to stop the circulation of the trailer which is doing the rounds all over the social media. Similar complaints have been registered in Mayur Vihar police station in New Delhi and the Jaunpur district court in Uttar Pradesh, according to the same report by Hindustan Times. India.com reports that former chief of the Maulana Azad Minorities Financial Development Corporation is leading the protest in Mumbai. He has approached Member of Parliament (MP) Rajiv Shukla to take up the matter in a personal capacity as he is on good terms with Khan. With the aid of Congress leader Ahmed Patel, they have made their concerns reach the filmmakers. The same report suggests that Khan has responded positively and has tweaked the trailer released on the official YouTube channel of his production house Red Chillies Entertainment, which is co-producing the film with Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani’s Excel Entertainment. However, the damage has been done as the original trailer has gone viral on the internet. Deccan Chronicle reports that the representatives of the Shia community has demanded the editing of any more such scenes that hurt the religious sentiments of their community from the film. They have also demanded that the makers should issue an apology and if their demands are not met, then they will carry out a peaceful protest on a wide scale across the country.