Mumbai: The Jodhpur District and Session court in Rajasthan on December 14 had issued notice to Bollywood producer, director Prakash Jha and actor Bobby Deol over hurting hindu religious sentiments. Case filed against their web series Ashram, which was streamed on Over-The-Top (OTT) platform MX Player.
The petitioner, advocate Khush Khandelwal had said that he had moved the court against the web series as Hindu gurus have been shown as rapists and drug traffickers in the show.
The religious sentiments of Hindus were hurt and were extremely unhappy with the depiction of their gurus in such lewd manners. Khandelwal also said that he had decided to take legal action after his attempts to file an FIR with the Kudi police station were unsuccessful.
The case is scheduled to be heard next on January 11.
As soon as the news was out, the hashtag #BanAshramWebseries began to trend on Twitter with several social media users claiming that the makers of the series were maligning the Hindu faith and were "anti-Hindu".
Here are some tweets:
Prakash Jha had reacted to the furore with much calm and said that such a response was inevitable.
"When you make something that affects the masses, a polarised reaction is to be expected," he said.
He said that the characters on the show are fictitious and does not explicitly mention belonging to any religion. He also claimed that the show has as many as billion views, which stands as a proof of its popularity.
He further added, "From this, I gauged that people love to watch such content. I can't imagine why though!".
The Ashram is based on a self-proclaimed godman and the head of the Dera Sacha Sauda Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, who has been convicted of rape and the murder of a journalist. Bobby Deol plays the role of a conman posing as a baba with Darshan Kumar as a cop determined to expose his disguise.