Afghan embassy raises concern over portrayal of Ahmad Shah Abdali in Ashutosh Gowariker's 'Panipat'

The trailer of Ashutosh Gowarikar's one of the ambitious projects, 'Panipat' has been dropped over the internet recently. It has received a lot of appreciation and love from the audience as well as other Bollywood celebs.

In the film, Arjun Kapoor will be portraying the role of Peshwa Sadashiv Rao Bhau while Kriti Sanon will be seen as Parvati Bai. Sanjay Dutt will essay the character of Ahmad Shah Abdali, an Afghan ruler. Baba's fans have hailed him for the portrayal of Abdali.

And now we hear that it also caught Afghanistan's attention. According to a report, the Afghanistan embassy feels that Ashutosh's film might portray Abdali's character in a bad light. And hence, they have written to the ministry of information and broadcasting regarding their concerns.

In the letter written to Prakash Javadekar, the embassy stated that distorted depiction of the Afghan ruler might hurt the sentiments of the citizens of Afghanistan. Which will also affect between the two countries.

Also, former Afghanistan Ambassador to India Dr Shaida Abdali tweeted his concerns. He wrote, "Dear @duttsanjay Ji: Historically, the Indian cinema has been extremely instrumental in strengthening the Indo-Afghan ties - I very much hope that the film "Panipat" has kept that fact in mind while dealing with this important episode of our shared history."

Meanwhile, the film is based on the Third Battle of Panipat fought between Marathas and Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1761. It will hit the theatres on December 6, 2019.