Akbar Jodha in legal tangle

It�s a script that Ashutosh Gowarikar might never have imagined.

His Akbar Jodha may be one of Bollywood�s most eagerly awaited films but it has upset Rajasthan�s powerful Rajput community.

In a petition to Jaipur�s district court, the Rajput Sabha claims Gowarikar is distorting history by projecting a romance between Akbar and Jodha bai.

Instead the Rajput Sabha claims Jodha bai was not Akbar�s wife but his daughter in law.

�You cannot make your own history and Ashutosh Gowarikar is making his own history. He is projecting Jodha bai who is Akbar�s daughter in law as his beloved and making a love story out of that. This is totally distorting historical facts,� said Narendra Singh Rajawat, President, Rajput Sabha.

�The entire nation is being taught a history where Jodha was Salim�s wife. And in this movie they are trying to project that Jodha and Akbar had a love affair and that was a love marriage,� he added.

�You are making a film in which the daughter-in-law marries her father-in-law. This is against history and a distortion of facts,� said R S Khangarot, Historian.

The Rajput Sabha�s petition cites 24 historical works to show that Akbar was not married to Jodha Bai but to Hira Bai - a princess from Jaipur.

But besides talking of the need for cinematic and creative license for filmmakers, Gowarikar claims his film is based on solid research and its unfair to charge him with distorting history.

Gowarikar plans to shoot his film at actual historical sites in Jaipur, Bikaner and Jodhpur.

But well before he explains the finer nuances of his epic to his lead pair of Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai, Gowarikar will have a lot to explain about Akbar Jodha to Jaipur�s district court when this case comes up for its next hearing on December 6.

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