Plea to take [Indian] TV serial on Buddha off the air

The Hindu
31 Jan 2014

Buddha, a serial being telecast on Zee TV, hurts Buddhists’ sentiments and it should immediately be taken off the air, says a petition in the Bombay High Court.

The court on Friday issued notice, asking the Maharashtra government to file an affidavit in two weeks.

“We won’t go into minor factors. If two different philosophies are followed, we will not interfere. If something is an offence and there are clear grounds for that, we will look into it,” said Justice S.J. Vazifdar, who, along with Justice B.P. Colabawala, was on a Bench.

“False depiction”

Petitioners Samta Sainik Dal and Bharat Leni Sanvardhan Samiti said: “They [the producers] have wrongly represented facts. There are many false things which have been depicted. They have not referred to the right religious books on Buddhism.”

The petitioners said they would send copies of the petition to director Ashutosh Gowarikar, producer of Zee TV B.K. Modi, Subhash Chandra of the Zee Group, storywriter Shrikant Sharma, the Union Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council and DD National.

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