Highly protested Hollywood film “Love Guru” submitted for certification in India

Keenly protested Hollywood movie “The Love Guru” has reportedly finally been submitted for certification in India and Hindus are stressing that it appears to violate various certification guidelines.

Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is the body responsible for certifying films suitable for public exhibition in India, where the main character of the movie Guru Pitka was shown to be raised in an ashram. According to Mr. Bansode, CBFC Superintendent, “The Love Guru” has been submitted for certification and decision on it is pending. “The Love Guru” opened in USA and Canada on June 20 last with Hindus calling for its worldwide boycott.

According to acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, this movie appears to violate various CBFC “guidelines for certification”. He listed the apparently challenged CBFC guidelines in this movie as: “ such dual meaning words as obviously cater to baser instincts are not allowed”; “visuals or words contemptuous of racial, religious or other groups are not presented”; “human sensibilities are not offended by vulgarity, obscenity or depravity”.

Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, stresses that the Cinematograph Act lays down that a film has to be certified keeping “morality” in mind, besides other things. CBFC objectives of film certification are given as… “the medium of film remains responsible and sensitive to the values and standards of society”, “the medium of film provides clean and healthy entertainment”…

Rajan Zed, who spearheaded the protest movement against “The Love Guru” beginning in March last, argues that it is a pure and blatant ridiculing of Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought. No faith, larger or smaller, should be ridiculed at. Today it is Hinduism; tomorrow Hollywood might attempt to denigrate another religion/denomination.

Calling “The Love Guru” “the year’s biggest box office bomb” and “decidedly unloved”, worst in film Golden Raspberry Awards recently short-listed it for seven awards, nominating it for “Worst” in categories of: Picture, Director (Marco Schnabel), Actor (Mike Myers), Actress (Jessica Alba), Screenplay (Graham Gordy), and Supporting Actor (Ben Kingsley, Verne Troyer).

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops declared “The Love Guru” “morally offensive” and slapped it with its highest rating “O”. “Preview Online”, which calls itself “informative tool for Christian parents and moviegoers”, gave it Morality Rating of –4 (Dangerous), which is lowest of five categories, highest being +4. “Christian Spotlight on Entertainment” gave it a Moral Rating of “Very Offensive”. Crosswalk, a Christ-centered corporation, wrote in the movie review, “…slew of seriously wince-inducing jabs at India’s culture (horrible, even when meant in fun)…”

Its Rotten Tomatoes Rating was reportedly “86% Negative” and according to reports, its Box Office was $32,200,122 while budget amounted to about $62 million.

India has about 13,000 cinema halls and according to CBFC website, “Every three months an audience as large as India’s entire population (about 1.13 billion) flock to the cinema halls.”