MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Thursday asked where the country was headed while alluding to “open threats” made to stall the release of the film Padmavati+ and the announcement of a reward to “kill” its lead actress Deepika Padukone.

“In which other country do you see threats made to artistes and performers? It is distressing to know a person makes a feature film and several others work tirelessly towards it but are unable to release the film for public viewing because of continuous threats… A feature film cannot be released in this country. What have we come to?” asked a bench of Justices S C Dharmadhikari and Bharati Dangre.

While pointing out that threats are being issued openly and shown on television, the judges said people are taking pride in announcing rewards for killing artistes and performers. “Today somebody says, ‘I will give a reward if you get a performer, artiste, actress killed’… Even chief ministers are saying they will not allow release of the film in their states,” said Justice Dharmadhikari, adding, “This is censorship of a different kind. If this is happening to people with financial strength and backing, what about poor people?”