Hindus express concern about “Ramayana-The Epic” film

NEVADA - Hindus have expressed concern over Bollywood and Hollywood not staying true to the story and the spirit of Hindu scriptures when making movies about those.

Renowned Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said that re-imagining of Hindu scriptures was not acceptable to the devotees. Hindus welcomed Bollywood/Hollywood to immerse in Hinduism, but taking it seriously and respectfully and not for refashioning Hinduism concepts and symbols for mercantile greed.

Talking about “Ramayana-The Epic”, animated full-length film released on October 15 by Warner Bros., Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that many devotees would find it out-of-line to see its characters performing rap in jungle before war with Ravan, Lord Ram with six-pack washboard abs and a buxom Sita.

Rajan Zed pointed out that Ramayan was a highly revered scripture of Hinduism. Bollywood and Hollywood were welcome to make movies about Ramayan but the final product should be the true depiction of it and not a fantasized or a re-imagined version.

Zed argued that changing Ramayan to fit the Bollywood/Hollywood machine was likely to hurt the Hindu sentiments. Ramayan was an integral part of Hinduism and was held in such reverence that Hindus believed that simply reading/hearing of it showered blessings upon the reader/listener. Ram, the hero of Ramayan, was incarnation of Lord Vishnu, and was worshipped by Hindus.

Hinduism was the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken lightly. No faith, larger or smaller, should be plundered, Rajan Zed added.

Ramayan, an ancient Sanskrit scripture that consists of 24,000 stanzas, explores various themes, including human existence, concept of dharma, etc.

Directed by Chetan Desai, presented by Ketan Mehta, and produced by Deepa Sahi and Niraj Bhukhanwala; “Ramayana-The Epic” film has voices of Manoj Bajpayee, Juhi Chawla, Ashutosh Rana, Mukeh Rishi, and Rishabh Shukla . Script has been provided Riturraj Tripathii, music by Sharang Dev Pandit, and editing by Sayed Sher Abbas. About 400 persons had reportedly worked on this about 100-minute film project for about five years. (ANI)