A group of Sikh protesters disrupted a showing of Akshay Kumar’s new blockbuster movie, Singh is Kinng in Amritsar. This is despite the fact that the movie had been cleared by the Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (DSGMC). They carried the portrait of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwala, the late Sikh activist. It’s hard to know what the youth were protesting about in this totally harmless movie - unless it was the lack of any substantial plot.

The protesters belonged to the Damdami Taksal group and they had very kindly informed the police that they were going to protest the day before, so the police were on hand to arrest a few token protesters and allow the show to continue.

“We will not let Singh is Kinng run in any of the theatres in Punjab . They (the film makers) have made fun of Sikhs in the movie. How can they show a Sikh, who is a follower of guru Nanak, dancing and romancing semi nude women in the film? It is not acceptable to us. They have portrayed a Sikh as a comedian and have ridiculed the Sikhs. We cannot tolerate it,” said Kashmir Singh, a protester.

On the other hand, the film received a tremendous response from cinemagoers all over Punjab. “It is wrong that the film ran into a controversy. It is a nice movie and very well made,” said Lucky, a cinemagoer.