Tuesday, November 7, 2006

Rajput community doubting the authenticity of Ashutosh Gowarikar’s ‘Akbar Jodha’

First, it was the nawabs of Lucknow expressing reservations against ‘Umrao Jaan’. Now, it’s a section of the Rajput community doubting the authenticity of Ashutosh Gowarikar’s ‘Akbar Jodha’.

Ashutosh might have done his research on his history inspired Hrithik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starrer – the love story of Mughal emperor Akbar and his Hindu wife Jodhabai. Now some Rajput associations are insisting that Gowarikar is distorting history, claiming that Jodhabai was never married to Akbar!

Renowned historian Irfan Habib had earlier said, “There wasn’t any historical character called Jodhabai. If there was, she was certainly not Jahangir’s mother (Jahangir aka Salim was Akbar’s son). Jahangir doesn’t mention his mother in his memoirs either.”

Rajput Sabha and Rajput Karni Sena, two associations from Rajasthan, are questioning the authenticity of Ashutosh’s script. They have allegedly demanded to see the script. Apparently they won’t allow anyone to portray the Rajput community in a wrong manner.

When contacted, Ronnie Screwvala, UTV, producers of ‘Akbar Jodha’, said, “I think you should speak to Ashutosh Gowarikar about this, because he’s the one who’s doing the research on the subject.” However, Ashutosh was unavailable for comment, in spite of repeated attempts.

Interestingly, Mughal-E-Azam, which is considered such a classic, also shows Jodhabai as Akbar’s wife.

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