No Indian movie to be exhibited: Kathmandu City Mayor

Kathmandu Metropolitan City Mayor, Balen Shah, on Thursday, announced that no Indian movie will be allowed to be exhibited within the capital territory if the upcoming movie "Adipurush" does not correct the "mistake" about the birthplace of Sita.

In "Adipurush", it is mentioned that "Sita is the daughter of India", Shah said in a tweet.

The film is written and directed by Om Raut and produced by T-Series and Retrophiles. Shot simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu languages, the film has courted controversy in India too.

This happened in light of the mayor placing a map of "Greater Nepal" at his office in retaliation to the "Akhand Bharat" mural in the new Indian Parliament building.

Mayor Shah, on June 8, placed the map of "Greater Nepal" in his chamber to counter the "Akhand Bharat" map placed in India's new parliament building. Some other local elected representatives followed his example.

The main opposition, CPN-UML has demanded to send a diplomatic note to India to protest the "Akhand" map.

The government should immediately send a diplomatic note to India protesting against the Indian mural that has allegedly depicted some places of Nepal in it, Raghuji Pant, an UML lawmaker said in Parliament on Thursday.

The new Indian map has incorporated some of the Nepali territories like Lumbini and Kapilvastu, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha. Nepal and India are already facing the boundary row over Kalapani, Lipu Lekh, and Limpiydhura.

Shah said that he has given three days to correct the mistake about the birthplace of Sita while writing slogan of "Mata Sita ko Jay Hos".

The film censorship board has also objected to the dialogue that stated that "Sita was the daughter of India".

In a meeting on Thursday, the board decided not to showcase "Adipurush" until the dialogue about the birthplace of Sita is not changed.

Sita was born in Nepal's Janakpur and Lord Rama came and married her, as per the Ramayana. With the Mayor's decision, now it is uncertain whether the film will be exhibited in Nepal or not.