Siddharth Malhotra Rues Difficulties Over ‘Maharaj’ Release

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – Filmmaker Siddharth P. Malhotra, after remaining silent is now speaking about facing a “hiccup” before the release of his film “Maharaj” featuring Junaid Khan and said it was not intended to hurt anyone.

On June 21, the Gujarat High Court lifted its temporary stay on the release of ‘Maharaj’ on Netflix, ruling it did not target the religious sentiments of a certain sect as alleged by its members. The movie immediately drew praise from the public and critics.

Malhotra said, “I really don’t know what to say because my film, when we wrote the script based on the book or the details of the court case available, is against one man’s ideology. Junaid (in the film) says ‘meri problem inse nahi, inke soch se hai’. He is fighting against just one person’s ideology and not the community…”

He stressed that neither he nor his team would hurt anyone’s sentiments.

“Even with Jaideep Ahlawat, in his entire take… does he say sorry for what I did? He never does because his character thinks what he is doing is right. So, it’s a clash of ideologies,” he said.

For the director, it was a ‘David and Goliath’ story.

“Now that people have seen the film, they have understood that we never intended not even one person’s sentiment,” he said.