Ashwin Krushna Dwitiya
Press Release
Nevada Clergy Association (NCA) today came out in support of the Hindus who are concerned that the newly announced Hollywood movie of Mandalay Pictures "Ramayan 3392 A.D." might make compromises with their sacred scripture.
Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr., NCA President, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, said, "We at the NCA urge the makers of this film to have a feel for the sensitivities of the devotees, depict the scripture in its authentic form without any alterations and consult Hindu leaders like acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed and others before launching this venture."
Rt. Rev. Savoy, who is also a well respected Christian leader in Nevada, further said, "Scriptures are sacred to the faithful and any pillaging of those is likely to hurt the feelings of the adherents. We fully support Rajan Zed’s campaign in this regard. Cinema is a powerful medium and we do not want it to depict the re-imagined version of sacred scriptures, in this case "Ramayan".
"We at NCA are for free speech as much as anybody else if not more. But faith is something sacred and attempts at altering the scriptures for financial greed or other agenda causes pain to the faithful. Hollywood is welcome to make movies based on religion but it should be more conscious and accurate while handling faith related subjects," Savoy added.
Nevada Clergy Association is composed of priests/pastors/ministers/etc. of Christian (various denominations like Roman Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican, Latter-Day Saints, etc.), Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Bahai, Native American, etc., religions in Nevada state of United States of America.
Rajan Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, has earlier said that Ramayan was a highly revered scripture of Hinduism. Hollywood was welcome to make a movie about Ramayan but the final product should be the true depiction of it and not a fantasized or a re-imagined version. Changing Ramayan to fit the Hollywood machine was likely to hurt the Hindu sentiments.
Motion picture company Mandalay Pictures, producer Mark Canton of "300" fame, and Liquid Comics have teamed up to make this movie "Ramayan 3392 A.D." Ramayan, an ancient Sanskrit scripture that consists of 24,000 stanzas, explores various themes, including human existence, concept of dharma, etc. Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about one billion followers. Moksha (liberation) is the ultimate goal of Hinduism.
