Rajasthan HC stops shooting of Salman Khan's film at Amer Fort

Jaipur, Feb 13 (PTI) Shooting of Bollywood star Salman
Khan's film 'Veer' at historic Amer Fort here will be
discontinued with the Rajasthan High Court today ordering the
film unit to pack up its bags from the protected monuments
where a wall collapsed during filming Thursday.

While ordering the film unit to stop shooting, a Division
Bench comprising Justice Ashok Parihar and Justice G S Sarraf
also issued a notice to the state government to explain why
strict norms related to "protected" historical monuments were
not followed in the case.

"Money and greed, coupled with power create blindness,
madness and the person becomes totally insane and insensitive.
When the Government and public authorities indulge in such
practice, a great havoc is created resulting in chaos all
around. The episode and mishap happened in Amer Palace, Jaipur
yesterday (Thursday) is a glaring example of the same," the
court said.

Besides, Bollywood actor Salman Khan the film also
features state tourism minister Bina Kak.

The court took a strong view on Thursday's incident in
which at least 15 onlookers, including two cameramen, were
injured when a portion of wall at the historic Amer Fort
collapsed during shooting of the film.

It also sought a detailed report with regard to giving
permission for constructing a huge set and film shooting in
the complex even though there is restriction on photography
and video shooting for the tourists there.

"The entire original land-scape of the main courtyard at
the entrance of Amer Fort, Palace and Temple have been
destroyed. The trees, fountains, flower beds covered by carved
stone Jalees have been razed to the ground, may be, to allow
the construction of huge sets for film shootings as in the
present case," the court said.

The court also asked the authorities to explain why
adequate compensation may not be recovered not only from the
erring officers but from the film producer for the damage to
the public property and injuries caused to onlookers.

The court also noted, the very basic structure and
original grandeur have been "massively" tampered with under
the pretext of development where huge funds are pocketed by a
few persons who do not even have a basic knowledge of history
and architecture.

"Unfortunately, not only the public but especially the
concerned authorities have become blind, deaf and dumb in the
glitter of money. In recent past, historical protected
monuments have become commercial source of income," it said.

The shooting of 'Veer', produced by Vijay Gailani and
directed by Anil Sharma, at the Fort, 20 km from here was
earlier mired in controversy with one Rajendra Singh
challenging it on the grounds that it was violative of the
Monument Protection Act.

The Fort Authority had later cleared the decks on an
assurance from filmmakers that assured them of taking
precautions. PTI CORR