Gippy Grewal’s Akaal Faces Protests In Punjab, Accused Of Hurting Religious Sentiments

Gippy Grewal’s recently released movie, Akaal: The Unconquered, has sparked controversy.

Baba Bakshish Singh has accused the film of disrespecting Sikhs and hurting religious sentiments. As reported by the news agency IANS, Singh has said that the film inappropriately portrays Sikh characters and shows them drinking, consuming tobacco or as’ mundit ‘(without hair).

Singh further argued that if Gippy Grewal’s film is based on Sikh warriors like Hari Singh Nalua or Jassa Singh Ahluwalia, then those playing them should be shown with full reverence and dignity. He also threatened that he would not let such films be released in the theatres.

Besides this, Singh also accused the government of supporting filmmakers “whose motive is to undermine Sikh history”. Meanwhile, Baba Bakshish Singh has been detained by Patiala police and further details are awaited.

Akaal: The Unconquered, which was released on April 10, is set in the 1840s Punjab. It tells the tale of honor and resilience, following Sardar Akaal Singh and his village as they face a vengeful assault by Jangi Jahan and his forces after the death of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh. The film also stars Gurpreet Ghuggi and Nimrat Khaira.

The film is produced by Karan Johar. Previously, Gippy Grewal talked about joining hands with the Bollywood filmmaker when he told IANS, “We felt that our film deserves to be taken out of the boundaries. The boundaries of our regular Punjabi films. So, it should be released in Hindi. In Punjab, we watch Tamil and Telugu films in Hindi. So, our films should be able to see all that.”

“I don’t think there is anyone better than Karan Johar… We locked things in the first meeting. So, in the next meeting with Karan, everything happened fast,” he added.