Pahlaj Nihalani, the CBFC chair person has strongly condemned the act of the Rajput Karni Sena, "It is not the Censor Board’s responsibility to verify historical facts because there are no records or verified data to prove that what is being claimed is true or untrue. We are here only to view films according to the guidelines and whether they conform to social norms. Also everyone has a point of view and there are various historical versions and all of them claim that they are factually correct. Who is going to take the guarantee for this?" Nihalani questioned.
He further added, "Whether it is a historical or otherwise, films have their own concepts. The writer and the director are free to exercise their creative imagination. After all it is cinema."
About the misrepresentation of history in Padmavati he said, "In any case, controversies and protests do take place even after a film is cleared by CBFC. If people believe in censorship, then why are they creating problems for censored films? Why blame the CBFC when you do not take it seriously in the first place."
While the founder of Karni Sena told to media, "We have been working for more than 10 years to safeguard the glory of the Rajput community and our ancestors. We are proud of our heritage and will not tolerate any conspiracy that compromises our self-respect. It’s unfortunate to see the Censor Board endorsing Bhansali. When we met the Censor Board authorities a few days back, they told us that no action could be taken before the entire film was made and came to them for review."
He cited the example of Jodha Akbar, "Truth often gets overshadowed by the subjectivity of perception which can mislead generations of audience and result in poor understanding of history. When it comes to Bollywood, it has happened several times in the recent past."
