The shooting of Akshay Kumar and Sonakshi Sinha`s ‘Rowdy Rathore’ in Karnataka`s temple town of Hampi was disrupted after activists said the minimum number of local dancers had not been used. The unit members of ‘Rowdy Rathore’, directed by Prabhu Deva, had to beat a hasty retreat after a few hours of shooting Monday afternoon following objections by local activists.

A song sequence, featuring Akshay and Sonakshi, along with many dancers, was being shot in Hampi, about 400 km from here, where the mercury has shot up to over 40 degrees. Despite the gruelling heat, shooting was in brisk progress when some local activists pointed out that the movie`s production house, Sanjay Leela Bhansali Films, had not used a minimum of 30 percent of local dancers for shooting the song.

Another reason for stopping filming is that the unit had taken permission to shoot a song sequence from Tuesday to Friday, but had begun Monday itself, said activists. Venkoba Naik, a local activist and freelance journalist, told IANS from Hampi that the entire film unit had no Kannada technicians and all of them, including the dancers, were brought from Mumbai.

It is stipulated that 30 percent of local artists had to be used for the song shoot in Karnataka. Naik said he learnt that the archaeological department, looking after the famous Virupaksha Temple and nearby historical places, had given permission for song shoot only from Tuesday. Senior production manager Champakadhama Babu from the Karnataka Film Workers` Federation said the ‘Rowdy Rathore’ production unit has not used the services of a local production manager from the cine workers organisation.

“The `Rowdy Rathore` production unit has commissioned a local tourist guide called Vittala to help them out without taking the services of a local production manager. This is in gross violation of the accepted policy of the All India Cine Workers Organisation," said Babu. "A local production manager could have helped the production unit secure permissions for the shooting," added Babu. ‘Rowdy Rathore’ is the remake of Telugu film ‘Vikramarkudu’, directed by S.S.Rajamouli. The original was a blockbuster, and its Kannada and Tamil versions were hits too.