KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 2 — The Home Ministry today confirmed that the Indian film Padmaavat has been banned from being screened in Malaysia due to an alleged negative depiction of a Muslim Sultan.
In a press statement today, the Home Ministry said that the Film Censorship Board (LPF) had found the film to have depicted Islam negatively during the rule of the Khilji Sultanate in medieval India.
“The character Sultan Alauddin Khilji was portrayed as a Muslim ruler but was villainous. He was depicted as an arrogant Sultan – cruel and inhumane, cunning and treacherous, dishonourable and he did not practice Islam properly,” the statement said.
The film’s local distributor, Antenna Entertainment had filed an appeal with LPF. The Film Appeals Committee had convened on January 30 and made its decision to continue with the ban.
The film was originally slated for release in Malaysia on January 25.
Padmaavat also courted controversy in India where it was delayed for two months as Hindus protested the portrayal of the 14th Century Muslim ruler being in love with Hindu queen Padmaavati as distorting history.
