Rajendra Rathore has written to the CBFC alleging that pairing the song Shoorveer with gangster scenes in Mirzapur: The Movie insults Maharana Pratap's legacy.
A song written as a tribute to Maharana Pratap has landed Mirzapur: The Movie in a fresh political row, days after the film's theatrical run pushed its worldwide numbers past Rs 200 crore.
Senior Rajasthan BJP leader and former Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore has written to the Central Board of Film Certification demanding that the song Shoorveer be pulled from the film. His objection, according to the Free Press Journal, is specific: the song plays over scenes involving gangsters, drug addicts and rapists, and Rathore says that context distorts what Shoorveer was actually written to honour.
"The use of the song Shoorveer in the Mirzapur movie with gangsters, drug addicts, and rapists is highly objectionable and hurts public sentiments," Rathore wrote in his letter to the CBFC.
His argument goes beyond regional sentiment. Rathore has told the board that Maharana Pratap isn't just a figure tied to Mewar or Rajasthan but a symbol of courage and self-respect recognised across the country, and that pairing his name with a criminal underworld setting hurts that cultural legacy.
Singer says he was never asked
Rathore's letter also leans on a separate complaint. He has pointed to objections reportedly raised in public by Repiya Balam, the singer behind Shoorveer, who has said the track was written specifically as a tribute to Maharana Pratap and that his permission was never taken before it went into the film. That claim hasn't been independently verified by CutMirchi, and neither the makers of Mirzapur: The Movie nor the CBFC have responded publicly yet.
Rathore's closing line in the letter is where the politics of it sits plainest. "Freedom of expression cannot be a justification for tampering with or insulting our great historical personalities, heroes, and cultural heritage," he said, asking the board to ensure songs and symbols tied to historical figures aren't used in ways that could offend public sentiment going forward, not just in this one film.
This isn't Mirzapur's first brush with objections over how it depicts caste, region or characters drawn from real-world reference points, going back to its Amazon Prime seasons. But a CBFC intervention request over a specific song, backed by a sitting political leader's letter, is a different order of pressure than online criticism.
What happens now depends on the CBFC, which hasn't indicated whether it will act on the request or whether the film, already in theatres and doing business, would even need a re-certification if it did. The makers haven't commented. Neither has Repiya Balam directly to any outlet CutMirchi has seen. Until one of them does, this stays a letter and a claim, not a ruling.
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