Samrat Prithviraj star Akshay Kumar urges education minister to revise history books to add details on Hindu king

Akshay Kumar and Samrat Prithviraj director Dr. Chandraprakash Dwivedi have been promoting their film in full swing. As the film is nearing its release, the two along with Manushi Chhillar have been spotted visiting several heritage sites and temples like Varanasi and Somnath.

Speaking to ANI recently, the actors spoke about why they chose these holy locations to visit to promote their upcoming historical drama on the life of the warrior Prithviraj Chauhan. Akshay said he did not go to Kashi for ‘religious reasons’ but for ‘cultural reasons’. “I have gone to tell people that this is our culture. And why it is essential,” he said, adding that he went to Kashi, which is associated with King Prithviraj Chauhan, to pay respect to the warrior and not to wish for the success of his film.

Dwivedi also shared his thoughts about "Hindu nationalism". He said, "I would call it cultural nationalism and there is nothing wrong in the revival of Hindu nationalism or cultural nationalism because the character of this nation is Hindu, and when I say Hindu it means culture.” That is why, according to the director, the crew has been touring these holy lands, since Varanasi is the "culture capital or spiritual capital of India."

The filmmaker went on to state that another reason they wanted to visit Kashi Vishwanath was to remind the public about the person who first destroyed the temple. He said it was Muhammad Ghori's slave, Qutb-ud-din Aibak who destroyed the temple first and Muhammad Ghori is featured in the film. That’s how the historic site is relevant to the maker and he decided to visit it. The director also described how India has been invaded since over 1,500 years. He emphasised that as a democratic nation, we also have capability to revive the ‘culture’ that was shattered.

On the other hand, Akshay expressed his interest in revising the history textbooks. He urged the Indian education minister to include more details on the Hindu warrior. He said that there are only two-three lines about the king in the textbooks and lot more about the Mughals who invaded the country. He added that hence, he wasn't aware of this kind of in-depth information regarding King Prithviraj Chauhan.

“We can balance it. I am not saying that we should not know about Mughals but balance it out, know about our kings also. They were great too. Bring it in front of everybody," the actor added.

Samrat Prithviraj will hit theatres on June 3. Manushi Chhillar, Sanjay Dutt, Sonu Sood, and many more play significant roles in the film.