NEW DELHI, July 31 -- Police in Bombay Monday provided tight security and body guards to an Indian film actress who received death threats for her role in a controversial movie. Monisha Koirala was granted special security after she received repeated telephone calls from someone vowing to 'liquidate' her for playing the female lead in a film depicting a Hindu-Muslim marriage.
The film 'Bombay' is a love story set against the back drop of Hindu-Muslim riots that broke out in the city following the destruction of a Muslim mosque by Hindu mobs in the northern Indian city of Ayodhya in 1992. Koirala -- who is the granddaughter of former Nepalese Prime Minister Girigia Prasad Koirala -- played the role of a young Muslim girl who married a Hindu boy. 'Bombay' marks the first time a Hindu-Muslim marriage has been depicted in Indian cinema and the film has been widely criticized by Muslims and Hindus alike for violating a tacit prohibition against inter-religious marriage. Orthodox Muslims have called for the film to be banned on the grounds that it threatens the 'principles of Islam.' Bombay police began providing security to Koirala who had been receiving threatening phone calls at her residence in the city's posh Oberoi Towers. Earlier this month, a bomb was hurled at the Madras residence of the film's producer-director Mani Ratnam. Some theater owners running the film have also received threats following the release of 'Bombay' in April.
