Bhopal: Screening of Hritik Roshan-Aishwarya Rai starer Jodhaa Akbar was banned in Madhya Pradesh today after demonstrations against it by the Rajput community at cinema theatres.

"The government has suspended the screening of the movie in the state with immediate effect as protests at cinema halls have posed a threat to maintenance of peace," Commercial Tax Department Addition Secretary D P S Parihar said.

In his order banning the screening of the film produced by UTV Software Communications Ltd, Parihar said the decision was taken in accordance to provisions under the Madhya Pradesh Cinema (Regulation) Act, 1952. A Rajput organisation has threatened to set fire to cinema halls in the state if the screening of the controversial film was not stopped immediately.

Describing the depiction of the Jodhaa Bai as Akbar's wife in the Bollywood movie as an "insult" to the community, Akhil Bharatiya Kshatriya Mahasabha has threatened to burn the movie reels and cinema halls screening the film, which has been directed by Ashutosh Gowarikar. "Till now our protests have been peaceful. We will resort to violence if our forefathers are continued to be insulted," the Mahasabha general secretary Surendra Singh Tomar told reporters earlier this week.

Tomar had also led a delegation to Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan seeking an immediate ban on the screening of the controversial film throughout the state.