As violent protests against Padmaavat continue across the nation, the Multiplex Association of India today said that its members would not screen the controversial film in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Goa.

The association represents 75 per cent of the multiplex owners in the country. The decision is an outcome of the vandalism and threats by Rajput and other fringe outfits demanding a ban on the film.

Barely hours before Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus Padmaavat hits the screen, fate of the controversial movie hangs in balance as there seems to be no let up in violent protests across the country.

The Shree Rajput Karni Sena and its chief patron Lokendra Singh Kalvi once again threatened that a 'Janta curfew' will be imposed across theatres screening the film.

Kalvi has also blamed Bhansali for the sporadic violence across the nation ahead of the film's release tomorrow. There were reports that the film was screened for Karni Sena, however, Kalvi dismissed such reports as rumours.

"A janata curfew will be imposed at any cost in film halls to stop the film's screening," said Kalvi said. He claimed that Shiv Sena leaders had assured the Karni Sena of support on the issue in Maharashtra.

The Ahmedabad Police have arrested 48 people from various locations under act of rioting for unleashing violence in the city. On Tuesday night, miscreants pelted stones and tried to set vehicles ablaze outside some multiplexes. Members of some fringe outfits held a protest in Bhopal where they burnt Bhansali's effigy.

On Tuesday, Supreme Court turned down pleas by Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments and refused to modify an earlier order that cleared the decks for the nationwide release of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali flick.

Maintaining that states were under constitutional obligation to maintain law and order, the top court had said this duty also included providing police protection to persons involved in the film, its exhibition and the audience.

The lavishly mounted film,starring Deepika Padukone as Rani Padmavati, Shahid Kapoor as Maharawal Ratan Singh and Ranveer Singh as Alauddin Khilji, the film was slated for release on December 1 last year but was postponed as the makers had not got a certificate from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), or the censor board, till then.