A Delhi court issued summons to Canada-based filmmaker Leena Manimekalai over the controversial poster of her upcoming documentary Kaali, asking her to appear before the court August 6.
Manimekalai kicked up a controversy when she tweeted a poster of her documentary that showed an actor dressed as Hindu goddess Kali smoking a cigarette and holding an LGBTQ flag.
The plaintiff claimed that the filmmaker "depicted the Hindu goddess Kali in a very uncalled way."
"The poster of the film depicts Hindu goddess Kali smoking cigarette which not only hurts the religious sentiments of common Hindu but is also against basics of morality and decency," the plaintiff said, according to the court order.
The complainant also pointed out that Manimekalai tweeted the poster.
"The relief of interim injunction is discretionary relief. Further, as held by Hon'ble Supreme Court in number of cases the ex-parte ad-interim injunction has to be granted in exceptional circumstances and undersigned is of the opinion that the defendant needs to be heard before passing any order against them," the court order said.
Manimekalai has been facing FIRs and threats after the poster went viral. In a recent interview, she dismissed claims that her film is disrespectful to the goddess or to Hinduism. She said she had been raised as a Hindu in Tamil Nadu but is now an atheist.
The Toronto-based director described the online vitriol as a "grand-scale mass lynching" by rightwing Hindu groups.
—With PTI inputs