Tom Hanks, left, and French actress Audrey Tautou, center, arrive with director Ron Howard. “The Da Vinci Code” opens the 59th International film festival on Wednesday (May 17). (AP Photo/Francois Mori)
The Da Vinci Code movie has raked up much controversy worldwide. In India, Christian and Muslim groups have demanded that the film should be banned.
In India, which is home to 18 million Catholics, the head of the Catholic Secular Forum has begun a ‘hunger strike until death’.
Joseph Dias said he wanted others to join him and pledged to continue until the film was banned.
His organisation has described The Da Vinci Code as “offensive” because it breaches “certain basic foundations of the religion”.
The Indian protests follow other demonstrations in several Asian countries.
Islamic clerics in Mumbai (Bombay) backed a call by Catholics for a boycott of the film on Tuesday.
The blockbuster has caused outrage among many Christian organisations, including senior officials at the Vatican.
Indian officials have held a special screening of controversial Hollywood blockbuster The Da Vinci Code after protests by Christians.
Government officials and Catholic leaders viewed the film after broadcasting minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi received over 200 complaints.
Mr Dasmunsi said opinions would be sent by Friday to censors who would take a final decision on the film’s release.
Mr Dasmunsi said the government was being “careful” over the film.
“We are a secular country. On any sensitive issue, we should take action after we examine every aspect,” he told the Associated Press.
The film received its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday.
India’s Central Board of Film Certification cleared the film on Monday, saying it would give it an adult rating if the film-makers agreed to a disclaimer at the start of the movie saying it was a work of fiction.
The film, which stars Tom Hanks and Audrey Tautou and is directed by Ron Howard, is based on the novel by Dan Brown. It revolves around a theory that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and their descendants survive today.
The cast of the film travelled on a specially-painted Eurostar train from London to Cannes on Tuesday in preparation for the film’s premiere.
Together McKellen and Bettany prevent the film from being a £125m critical disaster.
But the truth is, the wide appeal of The Da Vinci Code book coated the film in critic-proof armour long before it was even made.
“With 50 million copies of the book sold worldwide, it is virtually guaranteed to be a commercial hit.
“HOLLYWOOD faced the wrath of Christian groups as it unveiled its $200 million (£106 million) adaptation of The Da Vinci Code (Jack Malvern, Ruth Gledhill and Alex Derry write).
“British Roman Catholics added their voices to protests taking place from Italy to the Far East in anticipation of a film that Christians believe subverts the story of Christ.
“The calls for disclaimers and boycotts are the largest protest for any film since the controversies over The Last Temptation of Christ in the 1980s and The Life of Brian in the 1970s.
“British priests, monks and theologians called for a disclaimer after a survey suggested that 60 per cent of readers of Dan Brown’s book believed that Christ could have fathered children.
“Christians in India, Italy, Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and the Philippines also condemned the film as cinemas prepared for a worldwide release. Yes, the film is a cat’s cradle of lunatic ideas with lashings of religious psychobabble,but it’s infinitely easier to forgive than the book that begat it.”
Swaraaj Chauhan describes his two-decade-long stint as a full-time journalist as eventful, purposeful, and full of joy and excitement. In 1993 he could foresee a different work culture appearing on the horizon, and decided to devote full time to teaching journalism (also, partly, with a desire to give back to the community from where he had enriched himself so much.)
Alongside, he worked for about a year in 1993 for the US State Department’s SPAN magazine, a nearly five-decade-old art and culture monthly magazine promoting US-India relations. It gave him an excellent opportunity to learn about things American, plus the pleasure of playing tennis in the lavish American embassy compound in the heart of New Delhi.
In !995 he joined WWF-India as a full-time media and environment education consultant and worked there for five years travelling a great deal, including to Husum in Germany as a part of the international team to formulate WWF’s Eco-tourism policy.
He taught journalism to honors students in a college affiliated to the University of Delhi, as also at the prestigious Indian Institute of Mass Communication where he lectured on “Development Journalism” to mid-career journalists/Information officers from the SAARC, African, East European and Latin American countries, for eight years.
In 2004 the BBC World Service Trust (BBC WST) selected him as a Trainer/Mentor for India under a European Union project. In 2008/09 He completed another European Union-funded project for the BBC WST related to Disaster Management and media coverage in two eastern States in India — West Bengal and Orissa.
Last year, he spent a couple of months in Australia and enjoyed trekking, and also taught for a while at the University of South Australia.
Recently, he was appointed as a Member of the Board of Studies at Chitkara University in Chandigarh, a beautiful city in North India designed by the famous Swiss/French architect Le Corbusier. He also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate students there.
He loves trekking, especially in the hills, and never misses an opportunity to play a game of tennis. The Western and Indian classical music are always within his reach for instant relaxation.
And last, but not least, is his firm belief in the power of the positive thought to heal oneself and others.