Dalit Panthers activists try to disrupt 'Aarakshan''s show in Pune

The Yerawada police on Friday detained 25 activists of Dalit Panthers for allegedly trying to disrupt the screening of multi-starrer Aarakshan, directed by Prakash Jha.

According to the police, the activists arrived at the Kalyaninagar-based Gold Adlabs in the afternoon and demanded that the movie should not be screened as it would hurt the sentiments of Dalits and backward classes.

The movie, based on the sensitive issue of reservation, has been surrounded by controversies. The cast of the movie includes Amitabh Bachchan, Saif Ali Khan and Deepika Padukone.

"The management of Gold Adlabs got in touch with the police control room. The police personnel rushed to the spot to prevent any untoward incident," the police officials said, adding that the activists were later released.

Meanwhile, the response to the movie on its first day release in the city has been average.

E-square joint managing director, Kishore Ganatra said, "While the booking for the first two shows was 50%, we are expecting good response over the weekend."

City Pride partner Prakash Chafalkar said, "The audience seems to have shied away from coming to theatres on the first day. While the occupancy at City Pride Satara Road and Mangala was 30 to 35%, it was about 40% at City Pride, Kothrud."

Some of the viewers who saw the movie opined that the movie is not controversial. Pawankumar Shrivastava, a software engineer, said, "The film is not at all controversial. While the first half addresses the issue of reservation, the rest of the film talks about the commercialisation of education," he said.

Bhushan Patodkar, a MBA student, maintained that after the first half, the topic of the film changes. It focuses more on cut-throat competition among commercial coaching classes rather than the issue of reservation.