Members of Central Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee remove posters of Jo Bole So Nihaal at Sakchi. Picture by Bhola Prasad

May 23: A day after blasts rocked two Delhi theatres screening the Sunny Deol-starrer Jo Bole So Nihaal, the movie was taken off the screen in Ranchi and Jamshedpur.

Mango-based Payal Talkies in the steel city, which had been screening the film, also handed over a written assurance to the Central Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee (CGPC) that the movie would not be screened anymore.

?Jo Bole So Nihaal has hurt the religious sentiments of the Sikhs. We cannot tolerate the screening of such types of films. The entire Sikh community is against the film,? said the CGPC chief. The religious body had given the administration time till Tuesday. In Ranchi, where the movie was running at Uphar Cinema Hall, the administration swung into action after news of protests poured in from Delhi, Lucknow and Pune and banned the film?s screening.

Ranchi subdivisional officer Paramjeet Kaur said the screening was stopped to prevent untoward violence in the city known to be prone to communal tension. ?We didn?t want to take any chances since much of these protests turn violent, suddenly claiming life and property. In the interest of the public, the administration has decided to ban the screening of the movie till further orders,? Kaur said.

The move comes even as violent protests greeted the films? screening in different parts of the country ever since it released on May 13. The Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, the supreme authority of the Sikhs, demanded a ban on the movie and distributors in Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana and a few other states withdrew the film from theatres.

There were minor protests in Sakchi and Bistupur, both in the steel city, by members of the CGPC who brought down posters of the film and shouted slogans against the film?s producer and director.

The movie, however, did brisk business in remote areas of the coalfield where no official word about the ban trickled in.