The Film & Television Producers Guild of India Ltd condemned the attack on director Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his film Padmavati. Shooting for the film was abruptly stopped after a fringe group called Rajput Karni Sena had attacked its set in Jaipur and the director on Friday. The group alleged Bhansali depicted “wrong” information in his movie. The film stars Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh.

In a statement, the guild “in one voice” called the attack “extremely unfortunate, deplorable and totally unacceptable to the Indian film industry”. The guild’s president Siddharth Roy Kapur said, “The film industry has become the softest target for any fringe group looking for media attention, and we need the strongest possible intervention from the concerned authorities to end this and to end it now.” He pointed out that the same group had not allowed Jodhaa Akbar to release in Rajasthan, and said it was not the first time such groups had “unilaterally taken the law into their own hands to disrupt shoots/film releases and cause tremendous financial losses to film producers”.

He added, “The Guild makes a strong plea to the concerned ministries and authorities to promptly initiate stringent measures against these elements”. Rajasthan’s Home Minister Gulag Chand Kataria had also criticised the group for acting “outside the purview of law”. Several other artists had also condemned the attack earlier.

The group had attacked Bhansali and said he “tampered with the history of our ancestors under our nose”. “Things that did not exist in history should not be depicted in films. We said the same thing during the shooting of Jodha Akhbar,” the group’s founder Lokendra Singh Kalvi said.