The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) has objected to a Punjabi film trailer depicting violence inside the Golden Temple, holiest of Sikh shrines.
The Sikhs who downloaded the trailer of ‘Once Upon A Time In Amritsar’ on their mobile phones rang up the SGPC about the part in which a couple of Sikh youth characters standing over the shrine’s ‘parikrama’ (circumambulation path) brandish guns. “Shooting feature films inside the shrine is prohibited,” said SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar, “and the producer could not have the permission to shoot this kind of scene.”
Filmmakers claim that the Golden Temple in the backdrop of the controversial scene is just a large projected image, while to Makkar it seems to be the actual shrine. “It’s clear violation of the Golden Temple ‘maryada’ (dignity). Sikhs from all over the world have expressed to me their displeasure over the scene,” Makkar added.
SGPC additional secretary Daljit Singh Bedi lodged an objection with the movie’s director, Harjit Singh, over telephone and, later, claimed that the director had agreed drop the scene from the trailer. The Central Board for Film Certification has cleared the movies but its release date is yet to be decided.