Salman Rushdie's Kolkata visit cancelled

Controversial writer Salman Rushdie and filmmaker Deepa Mehta, who were scheduled to visit Kolkata to promote their film 'Midnight's Children' on Wednesday, have cancelled their trip, reports said.

According to reports, PVR Cinema, which is distributing ´Midnight´s Children´, based on Rushdie´s book, supposedly could not organise the venue for a press conference to promote the film.

Director Deepa Mehta and other members of the crew were also supposed to participate at the Kolkata Literary Meet, a part of the Kolkata Book Fair, which eventually got cancelled as well.

With the news of Rushdie´s visit spreading, some minority organisations were even reported as holding protests at the Kolkata airport this morning claiming they would not allow the author of the book ´The Satanic Verses´, which is still banned in India, to enter the city.

´May better sense prevail,´ Rushdie told NDTV on fringe groups who force ban on artistes.

This is not the first time that the artist is facing such protests as Rushdie was denied participation at the Jaipur Literary Festival last year following the protests by some hardline Muslim groups.

The government reportedly said Rushdie´s visit would pose a huge security risk as intelligence agencies is reported to have warned the writer that they had information about assassins who could be deputed to kill him by the Mumbai underworld.