PK and its controversies

01

According to a report on Zeenews.india.com, after questioning the financing of PK, Subramanian Swamy has apparently said that “a complaint will go soon to initiate action under PMLA on Aamir Khan & co for laundering terrorist finance.” Swamy had tweeted on Monday (December 29, 2014), “Who financed the 'PK' film? According to my sources it is traceable to Dubai and ISI. DRI must investigate.” [sic] Though Aamir Khan's film is impressing with its box office collections, it is making headlines over its content too, inviting protests from religious groups against the screening of the film.

Aamir Khan's Christmas release may have opened to impressive numbers, but PK is being embroiled in more controversies than one. We take a brief look... 

02

Aamir Khan's PK has invited the ire of yoga guru Baba Ramdev who has called for a social boycott of those involved in the making of the film, on December 28, as it has criticised Hindu gods and goddesses, reports economictimes.indiatimes.com. Ramdev, who was in Mumbai to condone the death of the mother of one of his followers, Sudhakar Shetty, slammed those making such movies that according to him "denigrated" the Hindu "culture and religion," the report further states. "People think a 100 times while talking against Islam. However, when it comes to Hinduism any one gets up and says anything, this is shameful," the report quoted Ramdev. 

03

According to a PTI report, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has said that Aamir Khan's movie PK has several scenes that hurt religious sentiments of Hindus. Reportedly VHP has written to the information and broadcasting ministry demanding a curb on such movies and 'changing the character of the censor board'. "It is requested that such films are stopped and character of institutions like censor board, which approve such movies, is corrected," read the letter, reports PTI. On the contrary, senior BJP leader LK Advani has hailed the movie as a "wonderful and courageous film". 

04

PK has been embroiled in controversies more than one. One of them were reports of Aamir Khan and team offering Rs 8 crore to stall the shooting of OMG: 
Oh My God as its plot was similar to PK.
The film's director Umesh Shukla has apparently spoken about the same.
A report on india-forums.com says that Umesh Shukla’s recent statement to a national daily has made it clear that the team of PK is being unnecessarily dragged into a controversy.
The report quotes Umesh as saying, “I don’t know from where such baseless rumours have come up. This is nonsense. These (Aamir, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra) are good people and they can never do such a thing.” The director opines that the creativity of PK shouldn't be challenged and unnecessarily made a big deal about, the report concluded.

According to a DNA report (dated December 22, 2014), when Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra got to know that the storyline of Umesh Shukla's OMG: Oh My God was similar to PK, they along with Aamir had approached Umesh to have a discussion. The report further quoted a source saying that OMG: Oh My God was still being shot when Aamir, Rajkumar and Vidhu offered Rs 8 crore to Umesh to stop shooting the film. However according to a report, Aamir denied saying, "There are 100 films of the same theme. It doesn't mean we are copying. And reports stating we tried paying off Umesh Shukla for stalling OMG: Oh My God are all lies." 

05

FIR for hurting religious sentiments: Certain sections of the society are blaming the makers of the film for being insensitive towards religion and portraying it in a wrong way. Social media is abuzz with mixed reactions from the audiences. The hashtag #BoycottPK was also trending on Twitter as people expressed displeasure over hurting their religious sentiments. According to a report on indiatoday.intoday.in, an FIR has been lodged against the film under sections 153A and 295A of the Indian Penal Code. 

06

Portraying Lord Shiva in a bad light?: According to a report on indiatoday.intoday.in, the secretary of Hindu Legal Cell, Prashant Patel, has apparently lodged an FIR against director Rajkumar Hirani, Aamir Khan, producer Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sidharth Roy Kapur. Reportedly, he thinks that Lord Shiva has been portrayed in a bad light in PK. Further allegations include comments on Hindu rituals, that hurt the sentiments of believers. The report states that the FIR has a mention of the film's dialogue, 'Jo darta hai vo hi mandir jaata hai.' 

07

Promoting love-jihad?: Offended Twitteratis even went to the extent of slamming the film PK for hurting their religious sentiments and promoting love-jihad. In his defense, while speaking to DNA, Aamir said that the crew of PK consisted of a majority of Hindus and none of them felt offended. He was quoted saying that in a democracy, everyone has their opinions and he respects everyone's viewpoints, feelings and opinions. He also clarified that utmost care has been taken in telling the story in a sensitive manner. While speaking to businessofcinema.com, he said, "The message of this film is that the biggest thing is humanity. That’s the biggest message of this film... that we all are equal. There is no difference between Hindus and Muslims... that trust and faith are the important aspects of our life. This is the message." [sic] 

08

Aamir posing nude for the poster: Aamir Khan went nude for the film's first poster covering his modesty with a transistor. The makers of the film were then booked under charges of obscenity. However, the supreme court dismissed the PIL which sought a ban on the exhibition of the film's posters saying, "If you don't like then don't watch the film but don't bring religious facets in it. These are matters of art and entertainment and let them remain so." 

09

Raju Hirani clarifies: Director Rajkumar Hirani came forward to clear his stance. In an interview to DNA, he said, "We have not done anything for which people can tell we have deliberately hurt anyone's religious sentiments. The core idea of the film is just that we are not born with a birthmark proclaiming we are Hindus or Muslims or Sikhs or Christians. It is just that like a baby is born without any per-conceived notions and is made to follow a certain lifestyle and perform certain rituals, we decided to have Aamir as an alien which meant he too did not have any idea or notions about what religion is here on Earth. A newborn baby is taught to follow certain rules and act according to one's religious traditions. When they grow up and have their own set of ideologies, they think their ways or methods are right and others are wrong. To a Hindu, some ritual might be done in a certain manner or something might be considered sacred. But for Muslims, it might be something else. That is what we tried to portray that our ways are different, not by choice, but our faith remains the same."[sic] 

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