Indian censor official quits over spiritual leader's Bollywood dreams

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[January 16, 2015]  By Tanya Ashreena

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian film that features a self-styled spiritual leader in bejeweled costume riding motorbikes and sending bad guys flying has prompted the chief of the country's censor panel to quit, citing government interference.

Leela Samson resigned on Thursday after an appeals tribunal reversed the panel's decision to bar theaters from showing the film, "MSG: The Messenger of God", on the grounds that it was a promotional feature.

"There is interference, there is coercion," Samson told television broadcaster CNN-IBN, adding that the tribunal, whose decisions usually take a month, had cleared "MSG" in 24 hours.

However, the government, which runs the censorship and appeals process, did not interfere, said Rajyavardhan Rathore, India's junior minister for information and broadcasting.

The imbroglio has delayed the release of MSG, which stars Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, the 47-year-old leader of the Dera Sacha Sauda sect, beyond its originally set date of Friday.

The decision to release the "entirely unsuitable" film had made a mockery of the censor board, said another panel member, Nandini Sardesai.

"If they had to give it a certificate and overrule us, why have a board in place?" Samson told Reuters.

But far from being unsuitable, say the film-makers, "MSG" fights alcoholism and drug addiction, and extols the virtues of celibacy and a vegetarian diet.

The debate went viral on social media, with hashtags #MSGinCinemas and #WeLoveMSG trending on Twitter.

"All hail freedom of expression. MSG ... is India's Charlie Hebdo," said Twitter user "Finger of India", referring to the French satirical newspaper attacked by Islamist gunmen this month.

ROCKSTAR GODMAN

The movie's trailer, which has racked up more than 2 million views on YouTube, shows Ram Rahim Singh, complete with flowing beard and hairy outstretched arms, glaring at evildoers before scattering them with his fists.

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Mobbed by thousands of doting disciples, he struts and sings like a Bollywood hero.

Singh wrote and co-directed the film, besides singing and composing its music.

A sequel is in the works with profits earmarked to fund a hospital and HIV research center, said Aditya Insaan, a spokesman for the film's distributor, Hakikat Entertainment.

Even apart from the celluloid derring-do, Singh is a controversial figure.

In December, a court asked federal police to investigate claims that Singh forced 400 followers to undergo castrations at his ashram in northern India, in order to experience God.

Singh has denied the allegations, but India's Central Bureau of Investigation has filed a case.

Several groups representing the Sikh minority that makes up 2 percent of India's population of 1.2 billion have demanded a ban on the film, in which they say Singh distorted their scriptures and dressed up as a 17th-century Sikh guru.

"We are not against freedom of expression, but the organization against Sikhism," said S. Simranjit Singh Mann, the chief of one such group.

Insaan, the spokesman for the film's distributor, has denied these contentions.

(Additional reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar; Writing by Tony Tharakan; Editing by Douglas Busvine and Clarence Fernandez)

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