On Thursday, Jawan actor Nayanthara’s film ‘Annapoorani’ was taken off from Netflix just two weeks after its OTT release. A major controversy erupted around when on January 6, Ramesh Solanki, a Hindu activist and founder of Hindu IT Cell, filed an FIR in Mumbai against numerous stakeholders, including actors Nayanthara and Jai, director Nilesh Krishnaa, producers from Zee Studios, and Monika Shergill, Netflix’s head in India.
According to the complaint filed by Solanki, the movie allegedly hurts religious sentiments and he specifies a scene where a Hindu priest’s daughter is seen offering namaz to cook chicken biryani. The complaint further states that some statements made by a character named Farhan in the film promotes ‘Love Jihad’ as Farhan says Lord Ram and Sita were meat-eaters and urges the Hindu priest’s daughter to eat meat. These statements about Lord Ram and Sita were condemned by many people on social media and the controversy snowballed.
Condemning the film, Solanki wrote on his profile on X (formerly Twitter), “At a time when the whole world is rejoicing in anticipation of the Pran Pratishtha of Bhagwan Shri Ram Mandir, this anti-Hindu film Annapoorani has been released on Netflix, produced by Zee Studios, Naad Sstudios and Trident Arts.”
Zee Studios, one of the co-producers of Annapoorani, subsequently issued an apology letter to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad. It further clarified that Annapoorani was not intended to hurt the sentiments of Hindus and Brahmins. “We have no intentions as co-producers of the film to hurt the religious sentiments of Hindus and Brahmins community and would like to hereby apologise for the inconvenience caused and hurt caused to the sentiments of the respective communities. (sic),” wrote Zee Studios.
The co-producer stated it would collaborate with Trident Arts and Netflix to ‘remove the film from the platform until edited’. On January 10, Netflix took down the film from its OTT platform in compliance with this.
Annapoorani narrates the story of the daughter of a Hindu Brahmin priest and how she becomes a chef which is her passion. The conundrum between her orthodox upbringing and her passion for cooking is the crux of the story.