Tamil web series 'Godman' will not release after outrage over dialogue

A dialogue “where does it say only Brahmins can read Vedas?” in the trailer of a Tamil web series has led to the show being suspended from OTT platform ZEE5 and its makers being subjected to relentless attacks both on social media and in the real world.

Web series Godman was to premiere on ZEE5 from June 12, but the company suspended the show after BJP MP Subramanian Swamy spoke out against its release and complaints were filed against producer Elango Raghupathy and director Babu Yogeswaran for hurting the sentiments of Brahmins.

The series with 10 episodes is a fictional story of a thief who evolves into a fake godman and was produced by Raghupathy to be aired on ZEE5. After the trailer for the web series released last week, Brahmin organisations objected to the dialogue and demanded that the series be shelved.

A slew of complaints were filed by several people seeking action against Raghupathy and Yogeswaran for “hurting the sentiments of Brahmins".

On Monday, ZEE5 announced that it had decided to suspend the release of the web series. “The producers and ZEE5 have no intent... whatsoever of offending or hurting any religious beliefs, community, personal beliefs or sentiments,” ZEE5 said in a statement.

Taking objection to ZEE5’s stand, the makers of the web series issued a lengthy statement alleging that the “Tamil Nadu Brahmin community came together like an army to file criminal cases in almost every police station all over the state demanding that the show be cancelled".

“All these complaints raised by Brahmin faction were just based on a one-minute teaser for a show that is 380 minutes long," the statement said. "People of the Brahmin community, not only from India but worldwide, have been harassing the show's Producer Elango Raghupathy, Director Babu Yogeswaran and the lead actors Daniel Balaji and Jayaprakash by phone, day and night, for the past four to five days.”

The makers said that these groups have created an “uproar of hate” going by the one-minute teaser without any understanding of the story of the web series or the intentions or characterisations or the context of dialogues.

”Not only do their extreme actions take away our constitutional freedoms of speech and expression as stated in the Schedules of the Indian Constitution 19-1-A (1949), if this prevails, it will set a bad precedence for artists, creators and storytellers of the future,” the statement said.

The makers also called to make a plea to gather support and solidarity to encourage ZEE5 to release the web series Godman without further threats or aggression.