'Religious sentiments cannot be hurt,' govt sources says on postponing Kangana Ranaut's Emergency release: Reports

"Few religious organisations have raised concerns about this. Religious sentiments cannot be hurt. There is some sensitive content in the movie," NDTV quoting sources said.

"The government is taking it (the concerns) seriously," they added.

'Emergency', in which Kangana Ranaut portrays former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was initially scheduled to be released on September 6.

However, the release date was postponed multiple times earlier.

The film's release has been deferred again as it is awaiting a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

Several Sikh bodies have demanded a ban on the release of the movie claiming it misrepresents the community.

According to reports, a top gurdwara body Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has sent a legal notice to the producers of 'Emergency', citing the film's misrepresentation of the history of Sikhs.

It demanded the removal of the objectionable scenes that will hurt Sikh sentiments.

The actor-turned-politician, a BJP MP from Mandi, who is herself the director, writer, and co-producer of 'Emergency', earlier termed the postponing of the film's release over such objections as "hugely demotivating and unjust".

Drawing parallels between her movie and Netflix series 'IC814: The Kandahar Hijack', she said censorship was only for those who make films based on "historic facts".

"Law of the land is that one can show unimaginable amount of violence and nudity on OTT platforms without any consequence or censorship, one can even distort real-life events to suit their politically motivated sinister motives, there is all the freedom for communists or leftists across the world for such anti-national expressions," Kangana was quoted as saying by NDTV.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has summoned Netflix content head Monika Shergill over the controversy around the recent series IC 814: The Kandahar Hijack which is currently available on their platform.

Also read: Indian government summons Netflix content head after row over new series based on 1999 Kandahar hijack

The series is loosely based on the 1999 hijack of the Indian aircraft IC 814 by five terrorists.

The makers of the series faced the wrath of netizens who claimed the names of the hijackers were deliberately changed to "Bhola” and “Shankar”.

A government source told an Indian news channel that it is taking the matter very seriously and added that "nobody has the right to play with the sentiments of people of this country".

The series is directed by Anubhav Sinha and written by Adrian Levy and Trishant Srivastava.