Hard-line Hindu activists broke the windows of a cinema, burned posters and shouted "traitor" in protests on Friday against a leading actor who Indian media said had boasted of links with the underworld.
The uproar was sparked by the newspaper publication on Thursday of the transcript of an alleged phone conversation four years ago between Bollywood star Salman Khan and his ex-girlfriend, actress and former Miss Universe Aishwarya Rai.
Indian television channels later broadcast a tape recording of the conversation in which a man they identified as Khan boasted of his links to Mumbai's mafia.
Macho star Khan, through his lawyer, denied the tape was genuine, but protests by Hindu groups have forced dozens of cinemas to pull the Muslim actor's latest film from screens.
Dozens of people were detained as they tried to stop cinemas from showing the film, which was released on Friday.
"Salman is a traitor," a small group of right-wing Hindus, wearing saffron scarves representing Hinduism, shouted in Ahmedabad, the main city of the western state of Gujarat.
In Surat in southern Gujarat, glass doors and windows of a multiplex showing the movie were broken, police said.
Khan's lawyer Dipesh Metha told BBC news that his client was not a participant in the taped conversation and it was a "heinous attempt" by the newspaper to gain readership. Rai has not yet commented publicly.
In Mumbai, the home of the Bollywood film industry, dozens of supporters of the main opposition Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) held a protest near the actor's residence, and some were arrested trying to enter the compound.
In several cities in central Madhya Pradesh state, activists of Hindu groups burned Khan effigies as well as posters and then stomped on the burnt remains.
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