Bhubaneswar: The authorities of the Jagannath temple in Puri Thursday demanded postponement of an animation film on the Lord, till experts vet its content which is allegedly fictitious and contrary to the narration in the scriptures.
The demand was made by Gajapati Maharaja Dibyasingha Deb, the titular king of Puri and chairman of the Shree Jagannath Temple Managing Committee (SJTMC), the highest decision-making body of the 12th-century shrine.
The animation film, “Mahaprabhu Jagannath”, is scheduled to be released July 10, six days ahead of Lord Jagannath’s annual Rath Yatra.
“The official trailer of this movie, which has been released and is in circulation on social media, portrays a completely fictitious story of Shree Jagannath Mahaprabhu. The story is contrary to the sacred narrations in our scriptures,” Deb said.
He asserted that any propagation of the glory of Shree Jagannatha must conform to the narrations in the scriptures, especially those composed by Maharshi Vedavyasa.
Vedavyasa structured and documented the vast Vedic knowledge and the Puranas. In those texts, he described Lord Jagannath as the ultimate and accessible form of Lord Krishna.
A “distorted and fictitious” presentation of the Mahaprabhu will hurt the religious sentiments of countless devotees around the world, the Gajapati Maharaja said.
“I therefore appeal to the producers of this movie, Ele Animations Pvt Ltd of Bhubaneswar, to postpone the release of this movie in theatres or social media platforms until the contents of the movie are authenticated by experts appointed by Shree Jagannatha Temple Administration (SJTA),” Deb told PTI.
The SJTA is one of the key committees under the SJTMC.
The producers of the film have not yet responded to the criticism.
