Akhil Bharatiya Chatriya Mahasabha staged protests against the Ashutosh Gowariker's magnum opus Jodhaa Akbar in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, today.

Chanting anti-Jodhaa Akbar slogans, the mob demonstrated outside a theatre called Novelty.

However, the agitation did not affect the exhibition of the film, which opened across 1,500 screens in 26 countries today and attempts to look at Mughal King Akbar's romance with his wife Jodhaa, a subject briefly touched upon in history books.

Seeing the situation getting out of control, police arrested quite a few agitators.

Jodhaa Akbar had been in the throes of a controversy with a Rajput outfit called Karni Sena calling for a ban on the historical film for its distortion of history. The film has not released in Rajasthan.

"Jodhaa Akbar is an example of a film 'distorting historical facts under the garb of magnificent production values and elaborate sets. Showing Akbar and Jodhaabai as husband and wife, when in reality, she was the wife of Akbar's son Jehangir, not only constitutes a careless tampering with history by Ashutosh Gowariker, but is also a gross violation of Indian traditions and social values,' they claimed.