Jaat Director Gopichand Malineni Breaks Silence Over Church Scene Controversy

Sunny Deol and Randeep Hooda’s film Jaat is under fire for a Church scene which has offended the Christian community. They demanded a ban on the screening of the film in theatres and recently an FIR was also registered against Deol, Hooda, Viineet Kumar Singh, the film’s director, Gopichand Malineni and the producers under Section 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). Amid this controversy, director Gopichand has broken his silence.

Addressing the issue, he said that the censor board did not mention anything for the trailer cut, but later told the makers to make cosmetic changes in the film print. “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,” he was quoted by Mid-Day.

The makers also issued a statement and said that the scene has been removed from the film with immediate effect. The statement further read, “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.”

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The scene which has led to this controversy featured Hooda, the antagonist of the story, engaging in violence inside a church. His character was seen standing under a crucifix with people praying in the background. The scene also showed him intimidating the people in the church, which angered the Christian community. The Christian community alleged that the scene was done deliberately to outrage religious feelings.