Ever since Nayanthara's Annapoorani premiered on Netflix, the film has been receiving mixed to negative reviews on social media. A lot of netizens and religious organisations have called out the film for misrepresentation of Hindus, and some have gone on to allege that the film promotes Love Jihad.
While a section of people on social media had called for the film’s ban and celebrated Netflix’s move, others like actor Parvathy Thiruvothu deemed it ‘dangerous precedent’.
“A dangerous precedent is being set. Censoring left right and ‘centre’ until we won’t be allowed to breathe (sic),” she said on her Instagram stories. Jabalpur police registered the FIR under Sections 153 A (promoting enmity) and 3A of the IPC on the complaint of the Hindu Sewa Parishad against the film’s producers -- Zee Studios, Naad Studio and Trident Arts -- as well as debutant director Nilesh Krishnaa and the actor. At least two police complaints have also been filed in Mumbai regarding the Tamil film, which began streaming on Netflix on December 29.
In the film, Nayanthara’s 75th, the actor plays the daughter of a Brahmin temple cook who aspires to be a chef and starts eating and cooking meat. Zee Entertainment issued an apology and said the movie was not intended to hurt the sentiments of Hindus and Brahmins.
Two scenes in particular have been receiving backlash. One scene featuring a mispronounced sloka from the Ramayana which says something about Lord Rama eating meat, and another where the titular character is seen offering Namaz before cooking Biryani. The relationship Farhaan (Jai) and Annapoorani share in the film, has also been equated to Love Jihaad.
The film had a theatrical release on December 1 and evoked mixed reviews. Industry sources said it did not attract any controversy at the time.
‘Annapoorani movie promotes love jihad’
It was only after its streaming release that it ran into hot water. Ramesh Solanki, a former Shiv Sena member, on January 6 shared a copy of his complaint against the film’s team in Mumbai, on ‘X’ and said, “At a time when the whole world is rejoicing in anticipation of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, this anti-Hindu film Annapoorani has been released on Netflix...”
He alleged that some of the scenes were offensive to the Hindu community and mentioned, as examples, how the daughter of a Hindu poojari offers namaz before cooking biriyani and that Muslim character ‘persuades’ the woman to eat meat, telling her that Lord Ram was a meat-eater.
Solanki alleged that this promoted ‘love jihad’. Congress MP Karti Chidambaram shared on X a list of quotes purportedly gleaned from Ramayana which describe Lord Ram’s fondness for eating meat “to all those getting agitated by dietary choices.” Nilesh Krishnaa refused to comment on the issue.
Zee Studios apologised
After the film drew flak online, Zee Entertainment apologised to the VHP and said the film would be removed from Netflix till edits were made. The film is now unavailable to stream on the platform. "We have no intentions as co-producers of the film of the Hindus and Brahmins community and would like to hereby apologise for the inconvenience caused and hurt caused to the sentiments of the respective communities," the letter detailed.
The film marks the directorial debut of Nilesh Krishnaa, an erstwhile assistant of director Shankar.
Trident Arts has backed Annapoorani along with Zee Studios. The film also stars Achyuth Kumar, KS Ravikumar, Jai, Redin Kingsley, Sathyaraj and Karthik Kumar among others. It is to be noted that the film marks Nayanthara's milestone 75th film.
(The story originally appeared in Cinema Express. With inputs from ENS)