Who is this Padmavati?

Amid an uproar in India over the release of the film “Padmavati”, now renamed “Padmavat” to appease the detractors of the movie, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe has welcomed the screening of the film in Colombo. A PM’s office official said that the PM had met the distributor of the film recently and made inquiries about the delay in screening the movie here.

He had said that there were no protests in Sri Lanka over the movie and if the Censor Board cleared it, the film could be screened.The movie got the go head from India’s Supreme Court this week and is likely to hit the local cinemas here on January 25.
Based on the epic poem Padmavat (1540) by Malik Muhammad Jayasi, the film narrates the story of Padmavati, a legendary Rajput queen who committed jauhar (self-immolation) to protect herself from Khilji, a ruthless Muslim king.

Padmavati also known as Padmini was the daughter of a king named Gandharvsen, the king of Singhal (Sinhala).While there is no historical record in Sri Lanka about a king by that name, the poem tells the story of an Indian king who sails the seven seas to woo a princess renowned for her beauty and takes her back to his kingdom.

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