Salman Khan’s Loveratri has become Loveyatri as the film was facing a barrage of protests and litigation in Maharashtra and elsewhere.
On Tuesday night, the superstar shared a new poster of the film on Twitter, with the quip: “This is not a spelling mistake.”
On Wednesday, a team of lawyers told the division bench of Justice R.M. Borde and Justice Mangesh Patil at the Aurangabad bench of Bombay High Court about the name change, after which petitioner Ajay Kumar’s counsel Panditrao Anerao withdrew the petition.
The film, produced by Salman Khan Films and slotted for a countrywide release on October 5, five days ahead of Navratri, is the launch vehicle for Bollywood’s favourite bhai’s brother-in-law Aayush Sharma opposite newcomer Warina Husain and is directed by debutant Abhiraj Minawala.
A resident of Maharashtra’s Nanded, Ajay Kumar had moved Bombay High Court’s Aurangabad bench on September 4, claiming the film’s title hurt the sentiments of Hindus.
“Article 92 of the Constitution talks about reasonable restriction to right to speech and expression, and doesn’t allow this. From the film’s promos it appeared that it was sending a very wrong message to the people of the country about a very holy festival of Hindus,” said counsel Anerao.
Anerao said the petition was withdrawn after the lawyers representing Salman Khan Films informed about the name change.
The trouble for the film does not end here. Ajay Kumar through his lawyer would approach the Central Board for Film Certification to delete any objectionable scenes from the film. “We have not seen the film yet. We do not know what is there. We will approach the censor board and tell them that they should be cautious about the film. Any scene that hurts the religious sentiments of the people should be deleted,” the lawyer said.
The VHP too had threatened to stall screening of the film objecting to the name, Loveratri.
A court in Bihar’s Muzaffarpur had, some days ago, directed the police to lodge an FIR against Salman and the cast and crew of the film based on a complaint.