FIRs have been filed against director Leena Manimekalai in Delhi and UP for the ‘offensive’ poster of her film ‘Kaali’. A look back at times when artists courted controversies for hurting religious sentiments
Poster of Kaali. Twitter/@LeenaManimekali
Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai is currently in the eye of a storm, which has risen after she shared the poster of her documentary Kaali on Twitter on Saturday. The poster shows a woman dressed as Goddess Kali smoking a cigarette, while a flag of the LGBT community is seen in the background. The film is part of the “Rhythms of Canada” segment at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto, according to the tweet.
The poster has now led to a social media storm with the hashtag #ArrestLeenaManimekalai trending on Twitter. She has been accused of hurting religious sentiments.
The Delhi Police, on Tuesday, registered a case in connection with the controversy. The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operation (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police registered a case under Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony) and 295A (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), a senior police officer said.
But this is not the first time that an artist has courted controversies over their portrayal of Hindu gods and goddesses. Here’s a look back at such incidents, which rocked the nation.
The controversial paintings of MF Husain
It is hard to forget renowned artist MF Husain, who repeatedly painted Hindu deities in the nude despite widespread and constant condemnation for his work. At one point, a Hindu politician offered a bounty for chopping off Husain’s hands. The situation escalated to such an extent that the painter renounced his Indian citizenship and became a citizen of Qatar in 2010.
Anger over paintings
A PIL was filed in the Karnataka High Court in 2019 against an exhibition, which included nude paintings of some Hindu gods and goddesses in Chitrakala Parishath art gallery in Bengaluru. The paintings were the works of Arvind Sainath Krishnamani. Following people staging dharnas outside the gallery, the offensive paintings were removed.
Bulbbul and the Bengali poem
A short video clip from Anushka Sharma’s Bulbbul went viral on Twitter in June 2020 after netizens slammed the filmmaker for insulting Lord Krishna. In the clip, Binodini (played by Paoli Dam) is seen reciting a Bengali poem based on Goddess Radha and Lord Krishna. The Hindi subtitles of the Bengali words in the poem included unsavoury words such as besharm and haramzada, according to a report by India Today. Following the backlash, while besharm was retained, haramzada was replaced with natkhat, as per the report.
Blackpink hits the wrong note
In June 2020, the Blackpink, an all-female K-pop band, faced backlash from its Indian fans after a statue of Ganesha was used in a music video for their song, How You Like That. The idol was shown on the floor, near a bejewelled Aladdin lamp, as a member of the band rapped on a golden throne. The band was accused of cultural appropriation and using the idol as a prop and defiling it by placing it on the ground, according to a New York Times report. The image was later removed from the video.
Rihanna’s big faux pas
Pop musical icon Rihanna came under fire in February 2021 for wearing a pendant depicting Lord Ganesha while modelling for her Savage X Fenty lingerie collection. ‘”The Love on the Brain” hitmaker posted a photo of herself wearing nothing but a silky pair of lavender shorts and matching jewellery. But it was her necklace that caught the most attention of critics, who have accused the Grammy winner of appropriating Hinduism,” Los Angeles Times reports.
More interestingly, this had happened less than a week after model Jhardan Reign sparked a backlash by posing in a Valentine’s Day-themed Savage X Fenty number in front of a Hindu temple.
A script gone wrong
The play Hindu Times, written by Scottish Indian playwright Jaimini Jethwa, that was featured at the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) in August 2021 had led to protests by Hindus. The play, which contained the “F” word, sexual references and foul language, was about the Hindu gods Vishnu and Brahma incarnating on earth as two local Dundee “wide boys”, Vince and Barry, to save an Indian woman called “Lakhi, aka Lakshmi”, reported The Times of India.
The conflict between art and religion is neither new nor is it restricted to Hinduism alone. One can think of author Salman Rushdie and New York artist Andres Serrano, who have been at the receiving end for being critical of Islam and Christianity respectively.
With inputs from agencies
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