The Allahabad high court's Lucknow division criticised the makers of the movie "Adipurush" for offending Hindus' religious feelings and questioned how the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) had approved the movie for public viewing.
The vacation bench of justices Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Shree Prakash Singh noted that such films were putting Hindus' tolerance to the test and expressed relief that the community had not caused any problems with law and order. The comments were made during the hearing of two PILs asking for restrictions on the Ramayan-based film's screening.
The court, which noted that the “nature of dialogues in the film is a big issue”, issued a notice to dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir and directed for make him a party in the case. Irked by the respondent’s submission that a disclaimer had been added to the film saying it was not based on the Ramayan, the court asked if they considered the people brainless. “You show Lord Ram, Laxman, Lord Hanuman, Ravan, Lanka… and then say it is not Ramayan?”
When deputy solicitor general SB Pandey told the bench that the “objectionable” dialogues had been changed, the court said: “That alone won’t work. What will you do with the scenes?”
Fuming at the offensive portrayal of characters like Hanuman and Sita, the court said films shouldn’t touch certain things: “Some scenes seem to be of “A” (adult) category,” the judges remarked. The bench asked the DSG to seek instructions as to whether the central government was contemplating to review the certificate granted by the censor board.