Bollywood is witnessing a series of flop movies. There is a sense of dissatisfaction and anger amongst the people after watching films like Pathaan and controversial remake of Ramayan, Adipurush. They are angry over the on screen treatment with the Hindu religious beliefs and customs.
The upcoming film from actor Akshay Kumar’s production house, Oh My God 2, a remake of the controversial film Oh My God, is facing backlash. On July 12, the censor board sent the film to the review committee. This is done in order to omit the Adipurush-like backlash.
Notably, the Allahabad High Court slammed the makers of Adipursh saying, ‘tolerance of Hindus is put to test’. The court added, “The one who is gentle should be suppressed? Is it so? It is good that it is about religion, the believers of which did not create any public order problem. We should be thankful. We saw in the news that some people had gone to cinema halls (wherein the movie was being exhibited) and they only forced them to close the hall, they could have done something else as well.”
As per a news report, the board’s revising committee seeks to ensure that the dialogues and scenes in OMG 2 ‘do not create any issues’. Notably, There is no clarity yet about which scenes or dialogues in Oh My God 2 have caused concern to the CBFC. Once the film goes to the revision committee, CBFC will reportedly take a decision on the movie, which is set to be released in theatres on August 11.
It is pertinent to mention that, with Bollywood, actor Akshay Kumar has also witnessed the biggest lows in his life. A series of his films sank at the box office, including Selifiee, Ram Setu, Rakshabandhan and Samrat Prithviraj. This has also reduced his fees, from 50 crores to 35 crores.
Well, the reason behind the censor board’s action is unknown yet but as per sources quoted in a report by India Today, “CBFC does not want to repeat the backlash that Adipurush faced over its dialogues” and it will take a decision on Akshay Kumar-starrer Oh My God 2 after the board’s revising committee “looks over at the dialogues and scenes in the film”.
The film is based around sex education and the first cut or the teaser of the film was released two days ago. The video available on YouTube has over 23 million views and was uploaded by Viacom motion pictures. The teaser does not have any concerning dialogue or scene and is said to have good treatment, as far as Hindu religious sentiments are concerned.
However, the decision taken by the censor board suggests that Bollywood has not learned from its mistakes and they have repeated it.
Notably, the sources told media that CBFC has now taken “preemptive measures” to avoid any backlash over Oh My God 2 dialogues and scenes. CBFC will send any movie dealing with subjects like God or religion for review and revision, added the source.
Journalist Ajeet Bharti shared from his official Twitter account on July 12 that, “The teaser of OMG2 release yesterday and people (me too) liked it at the face value. Now, I have come to know through the people of the Censor Board that the film uses very bad language, the story is about ‘sex education’ and Hindu religion. This is bigger propaganda than OMG. The language and subject matter are so bad that it has got an ‘Adult’ certificate against which they have appealed to the board for review. Dressed as Shivji @akshaykumar has tried to cheat back. This film is bound to flop.”
Notably, the recent film ‘Adipurush’ sparked controversy across the country for the use of language in the film and the bad treatment of Hindu religious sentiments. The makers claimed that the film is based on Ramayan and made an absolute mockery of the epic and its characters, including Bhagwan Ram, Mata Sita and Hanumaji.
In the film OMG 2, directed by Amit Rai, features Akshay Kumar in the avatar of Bhagwan Shiva. OMG 2 will also feature Yami Gautam, Pankaj Tripathi and Arun Govil of Ramayan fame. It will release in theatres on August 11. The satirical comedy-drama is a sequel to the 2012 controversial film ‘OMG- Oh My God!’
Back in 2012, the director portrayed an atheist, a non-believer and hurt religious sentiments and in its remake, the makers are trying to portray a theist and the life around him. Akshay can be seen playing the character of Bhagwan Shiva. He has come down to earth to protect a faithful devotee named Kanti Sharan Mudgal (Pankaj Tripathi).
2012’s Oh My God, had featured the story of Kanji Lalji Mehta (Paresh Rawal), who files a case against God for the destruction of his shop in an earthquake. OMG also featured Mithun Chakraborty and Govind Namdev along with Akshay Kumar.
Social media users have lashed out against the makers of the film and started calling for boycotts.
A user wrote, “Have so much faith in mainstream Bollywood that they will never portray Sanatan Dharma in a good light. In fact, they will go to any length to demean and ridicule it. All because a big section is so thirsty for entertainment that they will watch any trash that comes out.”
Have so much faith in mainstream bollywood that they will never portray Sanatan Dharma in a good light. In fact they will go to any length to demean and ridicule it.
All because a big section is so thirsty for entertainment that they will watch any trash that comes out. https://t.co/zUPWmRKTEt
— Thirumagal 🇮🇳 (@thirumagale) July 12, 2023
Another user wrote, “#OMG2 will be another disaster like #ADIPURUSH Imagine Mahadev giving gyaan on LGBTQ with the help of Aradhnateshwar avatar “
https://twitter.com/MadhavPriyaa/status/1679148854904778753?s=20
Another user wrote, “Humne to vaise bhi Bollywood movies dekhna bandh kardiya hai. Anti hindu propaganda ek yaha kaaran to hai hi, lekin aj kal films bhi itni ghatiya cheap quality ki aa rhai hai ki kya hi dekhne jaye! Cheap music, cheap dance aur usse bhi jyada cheap kahani”
https://twitter.com/iBetterCallKim/status/1679139805374939139?s=20
