The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) on Saturday demanded an immediate ban on TV serial "Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah", alleging that it has hurt the sentiments of Sikh community by portraying a series of blasphemous acts.
In a statement to the media, SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar said the serial had hurt the community by depicting a living character of tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, which was "against the Sikh tenets".
"No actor or any character can equate himself with the tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh. Such an act is unpardonable," he said.
The apex religious body of the Sikh warned the channel and the director of the show from showing "blasphemous" content on small screen.
Live from Mumbai with TV artist gurcharan (Roshan) singh sodhi
Posted by DELHI UNIT on Saturday, 16 September 2017
The producer of the show, Asit Kumar Modi, said in a statement tomedia, "Roshan Singh Sodhi was shown as Shri Guru Gobind Singh Ji Ka Khalsa, which has been justified through the dialogues & his performance. We have always believed in equality of all the religions & have never intended to hurt the sentiments of anyone.
Our show consists of people from varied religions and cultures who worship each God and celebrate each and every festival with equal respect & happiness. We are aware & respect that in Sikh religion nobody can show or portray themselves as Guru Gobind Singh Ji. We request our viewers not to misinterpret it any other context."
In Episode 2287 of TMKOC, Sodhi was dressed up as Guru Gobind Singh Ji ka Khalsa. We request viewers to not misinterpret it in any other way pic.twitter.com/MhNnqg8gJl
— TMKOC (@TMKOC_NTF) September 15, 2017
Roshan singh Sodhi became Guru Gobind singh Ji Ka Khalsa not 🙏🏻Guru Gobind singh.Please check his dialogues and the episodes. https://t.co/TitwKTBylu
— Asit Kumarr Modi (@AsitKumarrModi) September 17, 2017
According to a media report, Munmun Dutta said, “First and foremost, I didn't even know about any such controversy until this morning when I heard Gurucharan talking about it. This is a clear case of misunderstanding. Gurucharan (Sodhi) who is a staunch Sikh himself will never do and speak anything that goes against the sentiments of Sikhs all around the world.
I clearly remember having a conversation with him about this particular sequence on the day of the shoot and he had mentioned that nobody is allowed to play Guru Gobind Singh ji and thus he is enacting the role of his Khalsa. And that's exactly what we shot and showed on TV.”
Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, which completed nine years earlier this year, also stars Dilip Joshi as Jethalal Champaklal Gada, Bhavya Gandhi as Tipendra Gada and Shailesh Lodha in the titular role.
