Bangalore, Dec. 23: Shah Rukh Khan's Dilwale has been pulled off screens in two south Karnataka districts following several disruptions by the Bajrang Dal, whose leaders had warned cinemas against running the film.

The Hindu group wants the actor to "properly apologise" first for his comments on "intolerance" last month if he wants his movies to be screened.

On Sunday and Monday, activists of the Sangh parivar outfit had demonstrated outside cinemas screening Dilwale, also starring Kajol, in Mangalore. Yesterday, the protest spread to Udupi district, around 60km away. The activists stopped a screening at a theatre, forcing the operator to call off the subsequent shows.

Today, no shows were possible, either in Mangalore or in Udupi.

"We won't allow any films of Shah Rukh Khan until he properly apologises for insulting our country and the people by saying we are intolerant," Bajrang leader Sharan Pumpwell told The Telegraph today.

When told that Shah Rukh had clarified his stand since he spoke at an event in Mumbai on November 2, on his 50th birthday, Sharan said: "We cannot take insults to our country, so he must apologise (if he wants his movies to run)."

At the Mumbai event last month, the Bollywood star had spoken out against "growing intolerance", saying "religious intolerance and not being secular in this country is the worst kind of crime that you can do as a patriot".

Last week, days before Dilwale's Friday release, Shah Rukh said he was a "patriot" and a "nationalist" and "everything is fine in our country".

"I am really sorry if anybody has felt bad," he told a television programme and added that he was not saying so "because I want people to watch my film".

But the Dil-buster brigade appeared bent on disrupting the film. Sharan led the protests across Mangalore on Monday, when some saffron-clad activists protested outside cinemas screening the film. "We are keeping a watch to ensure no theatre runs this movie," he said, in what was effectively a warning to theatre owners.

"We have always allowed Shah Rukh Khan's films and this (protest against Dilwale) is only against his statements and not because of his religion," said Sharan.

The protests have, however, been so far limited to the south, where the Bajrang Dal has a presence. No shows were disrupted in Bangalore.

Sharan said the group had not spared even a Kannada film in March 2012 that allegedly showed Hindu gods in a poor light.

Katari Veera Surasundarangi, a 3D comedy set in heaven with popular actor Upendra in the lead, was not allowed to be screened in south Karnataka because the Bajrang Dal and the Sree Rama Sene, another Hindutva outfit, had objected to certain sequences.

Vidya Dinker, a member of the Citizen's Forum for Mangalore Development, has filed a police complaint against the Bajrang Dal, accusing the group of criminal intimidation in forcing theatres to stop screening Dilwale. "Nobody can stop a film from being screened when it carries all necessary permissions," she said.

The social activist even met Mangalore police commissioner S. Murugan. "But I'm yet to hear anything from the police," she said.

She has also written to state home minister G. Parameshwar, saying such "unofficial censorship and immoral policing" amounted to a "virtual murder of democracy".

Murugan said the police were ready to deploy security. "But no theatre owner has come forward seeking protection. In such situations, we always provide additional security to any commercial establishment," the commissioner added.

But an official at PVR Cinemas in Mangalore said the theatre authorities had decided against taking any risks.