Jaat director Gopichand Malineni addresses controversial church scene in Sunny Deol film: ‘No filmmaker wants to hurt’
Recently the makers of Jaat removed a controversial scene featuring Randeep Hooda from the film. Gopichand Malineni addresses the controversy.
Gopichand Malineni’s maiden Bollywood film, Jaat, ran into controversy a few days after its release on April 10. An FIR was filed against Sunny Deol, Randeep Hooda and three others for ‘hurting sentiments’. Talking to MidDay the director addressed the controversial scene and said this. (Also Read: Jaat: Makers of Sunny Deol-starrer remove controversial church scene amid backlash for hurting religious sentiments)
Gopichand Malineni on Randeep Hooda’s controversial scene
Gopichand addressed the controversial scene from Jaat that shows Randeep and his gang threatening people in a church with the actor standing in front of a crucifix. Addressing the controversy, the director said, “The censor board didn’t mention anything for the trailer cut, but later, it told us to blur the background in the film print. It was done even before people objected. If a film has to be a blockbuster, it has to be watched by as many people as possible. No filmmaker wants to hurt any people or community. We want to entertain them.”
Church scene removed from Jaat after FIR filed
On Friday, Jaat's team released a statement about the scene being removed from the film. Clarifying that they never intended to hurt anyone’s beliefs, they wrote, “There has been a backlash for a specific scene in the film. The scene has been removed from the film with immediate effect. Our intention was not to hurt any religious sentiments. We deeply regret it and have taken a quick action of deleting the scene from the film. We sincerely apologize to everyone whose beliefs have been hurt.”
What does the FIR against team Jaat say
According to PTI, a complaint was filed against team Jaat alleging that the film ‘contains scenes that disrespect Jesus Christ and Christian religious practices’. The complainant, Viklav Gold, also questioned the timing of the film’s release around Holy Week. Sanjeev Kumar, SHO of the Jalandhar Cantonment police station where the FIR was lodged under section 299 on Wednesday evening, said actors Sunny Deol, Randeep Hooda and Vineet Kumar, director Gopichand and producer Naveen of Mythri Movie Makers have been named in the FIR.
{{/usCountry}}According to PTI, a complaint was filed against team Jaat alleging that the film ‘contains scenes that disrespect Jesus Christ and Christian religious practices’. The complainant, Viklav Gold, also questioned the timing of the film’s release around Holy Week. Sanjeev Kumar, SHO of the Jalandhar Cantonment police station where the FIR was lodged under section 299 on Wednesday evening, said actors Sunny Deol, Randeep Hooda and Vineet Kumar, director Gopichand and producer Naveen of Mythri Movie Makers have been named in the FIR.
{{/usCountry}}