Ram-Leela’s release on hold by Delhi court, title conflicts with story

Most anticipated upcoming project by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Ram-Leela starring Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone in the lead has been showed a red signal by a Delhi court. The court considered a plea filed by three organisations against the movie and said that the film has elements like sex, violence and vulgarity and these will hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus.

Recently, a petition was filed by an NGO to ban the movie but the Delhi High Court rejected that plea and a fine of Rs. 50,000 was charged on the NGO. Now when, the organisations along with two individuals filed a suit against the movie release, an ‘ex-parte ad-interim stay’ is issued in return to their request. Two counsels representing petition Praveen Choudhury and Prayank Kumar Sharma commented, "The judge has allowed the interim application and the producers are restrained from using title name Ram-Leela scheduled to be released on November 15 till the next date of hearing, i.e. December 5, 2013."

According to the petition, the title of the flick is contrary to the inside story. People expect to have depictions on the life of lord Ram but as it is a love story with vulgar dialogues and songs, it would be injustice on part of viewers. The petition also reads, "The commercial exploitation of the word 'Ramlila' amounts to infringement. The defendants cannot be allowed to misuse the same for their commercial venture." It also mentions a request of imposing “a token damage of Rs 5,51,000 for commercial exploitation of the word to any charitable institution.” Meanwhile, the movie based on Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet has been halted and next release date is yet to be declared. The film produced by Kishore Lulla and Bhansali himself, is to be distributed by Eros International.