The Supreme Court has cleared the nationwide release of the animated movie Mahaprabhu Jagannath on or after July 28, setting aside an Orissa High Court order that had temporarily blocked its theatrical debut.
A bench consisting of Justices BV Nagarathna and R Mahadevan approved the screening after noting that the Central Board of Film Certification had already certified the movie. The justices also observed that the animated film is based on a web series that has already been made public on YouTube.
The ruling allows the movie to hit theaters following the conclusion of the Lord Jagannath Yatra festivities. During the proceedings, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the state, noted that the annual Yatra had commenced on Thursday in Odisha and other parts of the country.
The film’s producers, Ele Animations Private Limited, had petitioned the apex court to challenge the Orissa High Court’s interim stay. The high court’s order had stopped the movie from premiering on its originally scheduled Friday release date.
Background Of The Dispute
The high court had previously intervened after a public interest litigation was filed by Mahesh Kumar Sahu of Angul, alongside Dr. Pramod Kumar Acharya of Puri and Umashankar Acharya of Nimapada. The petitioners sought to block the public exhibition of the film in Odisha and demanded that the Central Board of Film Certification cancel its credentials.
In their petition, they argued that the film’s fictionalized portrayal of Lord Jagannath’s childhood, along with its dialogue and battle sequences, ran contrary to traditional temple practices and historical scriptures, specifically the Skanda Purana and Brahma Purana.
Before the supreme court’s decision, the high court had ruled that the objections raised by the petitioners regarding the depiction of the deity required thorough judicial examination before the film could be cleared for public viewing.
