After the initial reports of the film facing trouble with the censor board, a public interest litigation (PIL) has been now filed in the Delhi High Court against the film 31st October starring Soha Ali Khan and Vir Das.

The film attempts to trace the repercussions and backlash against the Sikh community after the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1984. Soha and Das play a role of young married Sikh couple with two little children and their struggle of taking their kids to safety when the Sikhs were being hunted down.

Ajay Katra, who is the petitioner, alleges that there are various scenes in this film which are “aimed and targeted against a political figure of the country”. This figure has not been named in the petition. The PIL further states that the producers of this movie have painted that unnamed political figure in a bad light and claims to be against the ideology of the country’s oldest political party.

The PIL has its basis in the trailers, posters and banners of this film. Katra contends in his plea that in the film this unnamed person has been targeted in a way to arouse hate and contempt. It thereby transgresses the right to freedom of expression.

The plea is not only seeking a stay on the release of the movie which was scheduled to hit theatres on October 7, but also demands for the deletion of some “offensive scenes”.