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Code red: City Catholics oppose Da Vinci film

“We will picket Sony Pictures’ office,” said Joseph Dias, secretary of the Catholic Secular Forum.

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MUMBAI: Another forthcoming film is angering the city’s Catholic community. But this time it’s not a C-grade Hindi film like Tickle My Funny Bone. It’s Hollywood version of Dan Brown’s bestseller The Da Vinci Code, directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks.

The community has decided to pull out all stops to prevent the film’s release. “We will picket Sony Pictures’ office,” said Joseph Dias, secretary of the Catholic Secular Forum. “We will also file a petition asking for a ban on its release.”

Sony Pictures is releasing the film worldwide on May 19. Sony’s managing director in India, Uday Singh, said the release of the film, which will also be dubbed in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam, will be accompanied by a “360º marketing campaign”.

“This is nothing but a money-spinning tactic,” said Dias. “Religious figures of any community are not meant to create cheap titillation.”

He said, “Attacks on the community through films and books have become more vociferous. These might be all said to be fictional, but if they go unchallenged people will believe these falsehoods.”

Abraham Mathai, general secretary of the All India Christian Council, a nationwide alliance of Christian denominations, mission agencies, institutions, federations, and Christian lay leaders, said, “We protested against the book also, but the protests against the movie will be at an all-India level. It hits at the founder of our faith, Jesus himself.”

Bishop Percival Fernandez, secretary general of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India, said, “The movie presents a figment of the author’s imagination as the truth. But how many from the general population will be able to tell the truth from fiction?”

The campaigners have written to censor board chief Shar-mila Tagore, Union Minister for Minorities AR Antulay, and I&B Minister PR Dasmunsi.

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