Actor Rahul Solapurkar resigned as a trustee of the Pune-based Bhandarkar Oriental Analysis Institute (BORI) on Thursday after his remarks on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj’s 1666 escape from Agra triggered protests from varied Maratha outfits.
Solapurkar, identified for his work in Marathi movies and tv, gained recognition for his portrayal of Shahu Maharaj within the sequence Rajarshi Shahu. (SOURCED)
BORI, a globally famend analysis institute, confirmed in an announcement that it had accepted Solapurkar’s resignation.
Solapurkar, identified for his work in Marathi movies and tv, gained recognition for his portrayal of Shahu Maharaj within the sequence Rajarshi Shahu. In a podcast lately Solapurkar stated that Shivaji Maharaj, the enduring seventeenth century warrior king, escaped from Agra Fort by ‘bribing’ Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb’s officers, and never by concealing himself in a basket of sweets as per the favored account.
After a video of his assertion went viral on social media, Maratha outfits within the metropolis staged a protest outdoors the BORI on Tuesday demanding his resignation.
Amid rising backlash, he issued an apology on Wednesday, expressing remorse over the selection of phrases and stating that he by no means supposed to insult Shivaji Maharaj.
“I gave an interview for a podcast about a month-and-a-half ago, where I discussed history and the way narratives evolve. Some people created controversy by isolating two sentences from the entire interview. I would never think of insulting Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj,” stated Solapurkar.
His remarks additionally drew criticism from Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP) MP Udayanraje Bhosale, a direct descendant of Shivaji Maharaj. “People like him, regardless of their profession, should be boycotted… I strongly condemn his statement,” Bhosale stated.
In response to the tensions, police have been deployed at BORI and outdoors Solapurkar’s residence within the metropolis as a precautionary measure.
BORI officers refused to additional touch upon the difficulty.
This isn’t the primary time BORI has confronted controversy. In January 2004, the institute was vandalised by members of a pro-Maratha outfit following the publication of American historian James Laine’s ebook Shivaji: A Hindu King in Islamic India. The ebook, primarily based on inputs from some Indian students at BORI, contained references that have been broadly seen as offensive, resulting in allegations of a Brahminical try to problem Maratha historical past.