Bollywood star Rajkummar Rao showed up at a Jalandhar court on Monday in relations to an eight-year-old case regarding hurting religious sentiments. This was in relation to a poster of a movie in 2017 which was controversial because of the poster featuring a Hindu god.
With the non-bailable warrants that were placed due to him not showing up previously Rao was ordered to appear. Discreetly covering his face Rao arrived to what many reports say was a court that was clear of staff and members of the public.
The case was brought up by a resident of Jalandhar who was angered by a poster of the movie Behen Hogi Teri. In the poster Rajkummar Rao was shown wearing a modern adaptation of shiva’s outfit and sitting on a bike which was the reason to the outrage.
Once Rao surrendered he was granted bail. Rao submitted a response which was a written reply directly to the court and then received bail thanks to his reply.
Along with Rao there was also legal cases against the producer and director of the film Ajay K Pannalal and Tony D’Souza who were previously arrested by the local authorities on the same charges.
The situation has once again put into question the dichotomy between the Freedom of Expression of cinema art and religion in India. Rajkummar Rao has not made any comments about the court showing or the case.
