New Delhi: What's common between Ketan Mehta, Rajkumar Santoshi and Shyam Benegal? Apart from the fact that they are some of India's leading filmmakers, each of their historical epics on celluloid has been marred with controversies on grounds of factual inaccuracy.

When national award winning director Shyam Benegal sought to revive the character of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in his film, some political wings were quick to wave the red flag, quite literally, alleging that there is no proof to support Benegal's portrayal of Netaji having married Austrian Emilie Schenkl. Though the film did release, it wasn’t before umpteen postponements of the original release date.

The much-hyped Aamir Khan-starrer Mangal Pandey also faced legal hurdles after Raghunath Pandey, the great-grandson of Mangal Pandey, filed a defamation suit for introducing a prostitute, as Mangal's love interest. The controversy ended with the court asking the film to be played with an insertion stating that Mangal Pandey died a bachelor and that the character of the prostitute Heera in the movie was fictional.

Maybe in this case the filmmaker could justify his script with a call for creativity. But what of Amrita Rao's character in Raj Kumar Santoshi's The legend of Bhagat Singh or Kareena Kapoor's ready-to-take-on-the-world role in Asoka? While accuracy is important, so is viewership. And for that it seems that the filmmakers wouldn’t hesitate to add or subtract a dose of history.