A six-episode television adaptation of Vikram Seth’s A Suitable Boy was directed by filmmaker Mira Nair and set against the backdrop of a newly independent India depicting a family’s efforts to arrange their daughter’s marriage to a suitable boy.
When A Suitable Boy was released on Netflix on 23 October, it was an instant hit and its actors, including Ishaan Khatter, Tabu and Rasika Dugal gained a lot of praise for their performances from fans worldwide.
But little could they have imagined that the series would lead to controversy for showing a couple – the Muslim Kabir Dhurani (played by Danesh Razvi) and the Hindu Lata (Tanya Maniktala) – kissing inside a temple.
This has outraged certain people on social media for allegedly “offending Hindu sentiments” and invoking “Love Jihad”, a term used for a purported conspiracy of Muslim men to marry women of another faith to convert them to to Islam.
Since then #BoycottNetflixIndia has been trending on Indian Twitter.
Reality show host Rahul Mahajan took to the site and wrote in Hindi, “A Muslim man kissing a Hindu woman during the Ram Aarti was ‘creative freedom’. But if a Hindu man and Muslim woman were to kiss in a mosque during Azaan (prayer), this creative freedom would be removed.”
On Sunday, Madhya Pradesh State’s Home Minister Narottam Mishra posted a video on Twitter and wrote, “A film titled ‘A Suitable Boy’ has been released on an OTT platform. It depicts extremely objectionable scenes that hurt the feelings of a particular religion. I have directed police officials to look into it.”
BJP politician and advocate Gaurav Goel took to social media and said that, “if any OTT platform is deliberately insulting the Hindu Gods & Goddesses, please file a complaint with the police or local court.”
Many netizens condemned the scene and expressed their disgust on Twitter.
But some netizens have criticised the trolls and called them out for their hypocrisy and referred to the Kama Sutra which is part of ancient Hindu scriptures, and the Sun Temple in Odisha State in India that has erotic sculptures, too.
Sourse: sputniknews.com
