Local people residing near the historic Ambikeshwar Mahadev Temple in Jaipur were angered after chhajja (overhang) of the temple was damaged during the shooting of a Bollywood movie. They were further angered after noticing that some members of the film crew were cooking meat and eggs near the old temple which is situated on the Sagar road in the city’s Amer region.
This incident happened on Thursday during the shooting of an upcoming film named Dhadak, which is the debut movie of actress Jhanvi Kapoor, daughter of Sridevi and Ishan Khattar.
After the locals noticed the damage and meat cooking, the news spread like wildfire and soon an official of Save the Heritage committee named Bharat Sharma reached the spot and halted the shooting. As per Bharat, this Ambikeshwar Mahadev Temple is about 5,500 years old and has demanded an outright stop on the film shooting, failing which they would start an agitation.
Further a written complaint to police was made against the unit head for outraging people’s religious feelings. After registering the case, the police station in charge named Naresh Kumar briefed that the people, had started a protest over the cooking of meat and damage to temple’s balcony during the transportation of equipment.
Sensing the protest, the police reached the spot to calm the situation and have launched a probe.
In the past, citizen groups in Tamil Nadu have called for a ban on film shooting in temples and archaeological structures. The reason given are that the shooting will cause irreparable damage to the heritage structures. Few activists have claimed that precaution isn’t taken while shooting and the crew even proceed to litter in the premises.
States like Karnataka already have a ban in place when it comes to film shooting at heritage sites and the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam has also put a similar ban in place.