S. S. Rajamouli directed Telegu film, Baahubali, has been repeatedly getting featured in the news, long before its release date or completion of shooting. It is not always for the right reasons, either. Earlier, the movie got into trouble when it was accused of having stolen the theme of the making video from the internet. However, the producers of the movie clarifies the rumours, by saying that the right of the theme had been bought by the team of Baahubali from Adobe.
This, time, the controversy is a little more serious, though this one, too, started from a video of the making of the high-budget movie, which was doing the rounds on the internet. The video of the period film, named after the Jain God, Bahubali, shows the protagonist, Prabhas who wields a sword in a battle sequence. Pictures of Bahubali, too, have been used in the video several times. The title of the film and the usage of their god’s picture have offended the religious sentiments of the Jains. Their primary reason for discomfort with the film is that, the film, which is apparently a violent film, has used as it’s a tile, the name of the most revered god of the Jains who are a peace-loving people. The picture of Bahubali has also been used several times in the video which shows a battle sequence.
In the video, the war aggression shown is considered to be against the tenets of Jainism.
According to the religious scriptures of Kannada, Bahubali, also worshipped as Gomateshwara, was one of the two sons of BhagwanRishaba who gave his kingdom to Bahubali and his brother, Bharat. After being involved in a war with his brother, Bahubali finally gave up his kingdom, and chose the path of asceticism. The followers of Bahubali are obviously anti-war people who are scared by the idea that the film, which uses their god’s name as the title, may portray Bahubali in the wrong light. Sode Mutt, a Jain institute, issued a legal notice to the director, to notify the problem, and make sure that in case the film is about the life of Gomateswara, being shown in a wrong way, it should be stopped.
According to N. C. Nagashree, the legal consultant of the Jain Mutt, the pictures of Bahubali could only be used by the film after attaining legal permission from the Mutt.
The upset Mutt has demanded a change in the title of the movie, to set things right.
Having received no proper response from the film’s team, the Jain community is now considering going to the Karnataka for the settlement of this matter, in case the team of the film refuses to change the name of the film.
Rajamouli has so far remained unavailable for any kind of response in this regard, raising speculations that he probably wishes to deal with the legally, instead of publicly with the media. However, ShobhuYarlagadda, the producer of the film, denied having received any kind of legal notice in this regard and refused to make a comment about this. He went on to say that it is a fictional movie, with no inspiration from any religious scripture or deity. He also assured that the film does not intend to hurt any religion or community.