When Mani Ratnam received bomb threat calls during his 1995 film Bombay release

Maverick filmmaker Mani Ratnam has often been the target of getting bomb threats ahead of several of his film releases. The fringe groups had often found something objectionable in his films and threatened him to retaliate with violence. The director had even sustained minor injuries when a bomb had gone off in his residence two decades ago.

The incident happened at the time of the release of his 1995 film Bombay starring Manisha Koirala and Arvind Swamy in the lead roles. The film follows the story of a Muslim woman and a Hindu man falling in love and eloping to get married as their families object to their relationship. However, they end up facing the wrath of communal riots when they moved to Bombay. The movie received flak for certain dialogues and scenes, after which protesters demanded its complete ban.

Ratnam received calls from certain fringe outfits who demanded the removal of certain dialogues and a portion from the movie which they considered objectionable. Later, they evoked strong protests demanding its complete ban. Following this, they attacked Ratnam’s house with three crude bombs. The assailants, however, escaped but Ratnam suffered injuries.

In 2018, Ratnam got a bomb threat call demanding that he cut out a dialogue from his film Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. A fringe group had made a complaint against Mani Ratnam for criticizing a particular community in the movie. Immediately after Ratnam had to lodge a formal police complaint. The film starred Vijay Sethupathi, Simbu, Aravind Samy, and Arun Vijay.

Meanwhile, Ratnam has completed the shoot of the first part of his adaptation of the epic novel, ' Ponniyin Selvan-1 '. The much-awaited magnum opus is an adventure story where brave soldiers, cunning spies and evil schemers all try to win the empire for themselves. Produced by Lyca Productions in association with Madras Talkies, the film has a huge star cast including Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Prakash Raj , Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Trisha, Vikram Prabhu, Aishwarya Lekshmi, and several others.