IANS

Rahul Dholakia's acclaimed film "Parzania" that focuses on the 2002 Gujarat communal violence was Friday released across the country except in this state, with the filmmaker alleging that "some people, some parties" had warned cinema owners against showing it.

"Parzania" is based on a real life incident in which an Ahmedabad-based Parsi family's son went missing during the sectarian strife that began Feb 28, 2002.

While the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has not imposed any ban on the film, cinema houses across the state refrained from screening the film that was released in the rest of the country by Dholakia himself.

Some cinema owners said the small-budget film made no economic sense as multi-starrer "Salaam-e-Ishq" was releasing the same day.

However, Gujarat Multiplex Owners Association vice president Mahendra Goswami was more candid, saying: "The film's theme might disturb the peace in the state."

An angry Dholakia told CNN-IBN in Mumbai: "Exhibitors in Gujarat are reluctant to screen the film. They don't tell me exactly why, but I believe they were informed by some people, some parties not to show the film."

"Parzania" seems to be going the way of the Aamir Khan-starrer "Fanaa", one of the top blockbusters of 2006 that was not shown by any cinema house in the state after the youth wings of the BJP as well as the opposition Congress called for its boycott. They were angry at Aamir's criticism of the Sardar Sarovar dam project on the Narmada river.