New Delhi: In less than a week after the delayed release of "The Da Vinci Code" in India, Andhra Pradesh, Meghalaya and Pondicherry Thursday joined Goa, Nagaland, Punjab and Tamil Nadu in banning the controversial film.
The states of Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh and Union Territory of Pondicherry announced the ban on the film Thursday, while Tamil Nadu decided to ban it Wednesday. Punjab and Nagaland had decided to do so May 25 and May 24, respectively.
The Goa government was the first to ban the film after passing a resolution May 16.
The film, produced by Columbia Pictures, is based on Dan Brown’s bestseller of the same name published in 2002 that suggests Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and even fathered a child from her.
"After taking into consideration the reports from various government agencies and complaints from minority communities, particularly Christians, regarding ‘The Da Vinci Code’, the government has come to the conclusion that the exhibition of the film is likely to cause breach of peace and hurt religious sentiments of the minorities. Hence, the government decided to suspend the screening of the movie," an Andhra Pradesh government release said.
Various Christian groups and prominent individuals, including nominated legislator Christine Lazarus and chairperson of the state women’s commission Mary Ravindernath, had made representations to Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, a Christian, against the film.
Christian-majority state Meghalaya also banned the film.
"We have decided to ban the screening of the film with immediate effect, both in cinemas and private viewing, to maintain calm and tranquillity in the state," Meghalaya Home Minister H.D.R. Lyngdoh announced in Shillong.
Meghalaya was the second northeastern state, after Nagaland, to ban the film.
"The film portrays the Christian faith in bad taste, and is nothing but blasphemous in nature," a Meghalaya Presbyterian Church leader said.
Nagaland banned not just the film, but also the sale, distribution and reading of Brown’s book, on which the movie is based.
"The book is blasphemous… It has portrayed Christ and the Christian faith in a highly objectionable manner," Nagaland Education Minister Imkong Imchen had said.
The ban comes despite the film being cleared for viewing throughout the country.
India’s film censor board had passed the film May 18 without any cuts with a disclaimer in the beginning and the end saying it is was fiction.
The film was released in India last Friday, a week after its worldwide release, as the government considered representations it had received from various groups against it.
Though the film had been cleared by the censor board, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Rajan Dasmunsi watched the film along with representatives of Christian organisations before giving the green signal.
