Lucknow, Feb. 28: Aligarh has run into Aligarh.

Theatre owners in the Uttar Pradesh city have decided against screening the Manoj Bajpai-starrer following objections from some residents that the name of the film - about a professor who was hounded to his death because of being homosexual - "defamed" the city.

Among those who voiced objections were some minority leaders, a section of students of Aligarh Muslim University and mayor Shakuntala Bharti, who is from the BJP.

"We want the state government to ban the movie because its name defames my city," Bharti has said.

None of the seven halls in Aligarh is showing the film although it has been running well across the state.

The plot revolves around the life of Shrinivas Ramchandra Siras, who was suspended in February 2010 by the then AMU vice-chancellor P.K. Abdul Aziz following a purported sting by a local channel. In the clip, Siras (played by Bajpai) was shown in a compromising position with a rickshaw-puller.

Allahabad High Court had later ordered the university to reinstate him but Siras, who had to leave his official residence, was found dead in the rented house he had moved to in April 2010. The police concluded he had committed suicide.

AMU Students Action Committee leader Fahim Akhtar today said they were planning to file a case against director Hansal Mehta. "Our only objection is with the name of the movie. He should have given it any other name," he said.

Jasim Mohammad, secretary of the group Millat Bedari Muhim Committee, said: "We want the makers of the film to change it (the name) so that Aligarh is not linked with homosexuality."

Masood al-Hasan, former vice-president of the AMU Students' Union, said the city was better known for poetry and education. "We won't allow the screening of this movie if its name isn't changed."