Hindus urged to keep the faith.
May 20th 2009 07:30
Hindus urge world filmmakers rushing to India to treat their faith with
respect
International filmmakers are rushing to India with various projects making
Hindus concerned about the depiction of their ancient religion on world
cinema screens.
Acclaimed Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today,
said that Hindus and people of India welcomed world filmmakers to make India
their next film project destination but taking Hinduism and other religions
of India seriously and respectfully and not reimagining their concepts and
symbols just for mercantile greed.
Various British projects reportedly in pipeline include ambitious “Indian
Summer” of Working Title, producer Leslee Udwin’s “West is West”, producer
Graham Broadbent’s “These Foolish Things”, a detective series and a film
about a crazed elephant by David Thompson of Origin Pictures, Gurinder
Chadha’s two new projects, etc. Various Australian ventures reportedly
include "The Waiting City" by Claire McCarthy; "Bollywood Down Under";
“Family Unit”; documentary “Bollywood Bazaar”; producer Bill Bennett’s
thriller; John Winter’s two India-centric films; projects by Anupam Sharma,
Jim McElroy and David Wood; etc. Hollywood recently co-produced Bollywood
films like "Chandni Chowk To China" and "Saawariya". Los Angeles based PCB
Productions reportedly is looking at mobile gaming to supplement major
Bollywood releases for Western audience.
Reasons cited for this sudden passion for India are: Slumdog effect,
globalization, Bollywood’s growing technical sophistication and resources,
cost-effectiveness, exoticism, irresistible locations, exploding global
market for India-centric films, etc.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that cinema had
always been interested in God but had not done a very good job in the
depiction of religion and spirituality in general. Filmmakers should be more
sensitive while handling faith related subjects, as cinema being very
powerful medium, could create stereotypes in the minds of some audiences,
and sometimes it resulted in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and
revered symbols thus hurting the devotees.
Rajan Zed pointed out that Hinduism was the oldest and third largest
religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich
philosophical thought and it should not be taken lightly. He urged world
filmmakers not to trivialize Hinduism and other religions of India. If
asked, he or other Hindu scholars would gladly help filmmakers regarding
resources they needed for their study and research, he added.
Zed stressed that Hindus were for free speech as much as anybody else if not
more. Hindu tradition encouraged peaceful debates, won on their intellectual
merit. But faith was something sacred and attempts at belittling it or
reformulating it for other agendas pained the devotees.
Source; Email Rajan Zed
respect
International filmmakers are rushing to India with various projects making
Hindus concerned about the depiction of their ancient religion on world
cinema screens.
Rajan Zed in August 08 Courtesy Wikipedia
their next film project destination but taking Hinduism and other religions
of India seriously and respectfully and not reimagining their concepts and
symbols just for mercantile greed.
Various British projects reportedly in pipeline include ambitious “Indian
Summer” of Working Title, producer Leslee Udwin’s “West is West”, producer
Graham Broadbent’s “These Foolish Things”, a detective series and a film
about a crazed elephant by David Thompson of Origin Pictures, Gurinder
Chadha’s two new projects, etc. Various Australian ventures reportedly
include "The Waiting City" by Claire McCarthy; "Bollywood Down Under";
“Family Unit”; documentary “Bollywood Bazaar”; producer Bill Bennett’s
thriller; John Winter’s two India-centric films; projects by Anupam Sharma,
Jim McElroy and David Wood; etc. Hollywood recently co-produced Bollywood
films like "Chandni Chowk To China" and "Saawariya". Los Angeles based PCB
Bollywood releases for Western audience.
Reasons cited for this sudden passion for India are: Slumdog effect,
globalization, Bollywood’s growing technical sophistication and resources,
cost-effectiveness, exoticism, irresistible locations, exploding global
market for India-centric films, etc.
Zed, who is president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said that cinema had
always been interested in God but had not done a very good job in the
depiction of religion and spirituality in general. Filmmakers should be more
sensitive while handling faith related subjects, as cinema being very
powerful medium, could create stereotypes in the minds of some audiences,
and sometimes it resulted in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and
revered symbols thus hurting the devotees.
Rajan Zed pointed out that Hinduism was the oldest and third largest
religion of the world with about one billion adherents and a rich
philosophical thought and it should not be taken lightly. He urged world
filmmakers not to trivialize Hinduism and other religions of India. If
asked, he or other Hindu scholars would gladly help filmmakers regarding
resources they needed for their study and research, he added.
Zed stressed that Hindus were for free speech as much as anybody else if not
more. Hindu tradition encouraged peaceful debates, won on their intellectual
merit. But faith was something sacred and attempts at belittling it or
reformulating it for other agendas pained the devotees.
Source; Email Rajan Zed
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