The Karni Sena, never known to shy away from controversies, has now gotten into action against Prakash Jha’s hit series Aashram streaming on MX Player. The series that has been well received by the audience and the trailer of which has marked millions of views features Bobby Deol as a fraudulent debauched Godman. According to the Karni Sena, the series is an insult to the Hindu religion. They have sent a long legal notice to Prakash Jha stating, among other things, “The said web series have(sic.) deeply hurt the sentiments of the people at large and it is also going to spread negative goodwill(sic.) about Hindu religion on(sic.) future generations to come.”
When I reached out to Prakash Jha for a reaction to the Karni Sena’s demand for a ban on Season 2 of Aashram, he did not sound bothered and lashed out in his reply, “Who am I to make a judgment on their demand? We had 400 million-plus views for the first season. I think viewers are the best placed to decide on ‘negative goodwill’. Shall we leave it to them?”
Ashram released its recent trailer on October 29 and is all set to release on MX Player on November 11, 2020. The series also stars Aaditi Pohankar, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Darshan Kumaar, Anupriya Goenka, Adhyayan Suman as key characters. But this ain't the first time that Karni Sena has targetted Bollywood. It had earlier accused Sanjay Leela Bhansali and Deepika Padukone of denigrating the Hindu religion in Padmaavat and had even threatened to cut off Deepika's nose. After a few months of delay, Padmaavat was released and was widely and whole-heartedly accepted by the audience.
Image source :instagram.com/iambobbydeol/ mxplayer/