New Delhi: “The subject matter of the programme is sensitive hence viewer discretion is advised. MX Player and Prakash Jha Productions shall not be responsible for any concerns arising in relation to the programme,” reads the disclaimer at the beginning of Aashram, a show starring Bobby Deol streaming on the OTT platform MX Player. But while the showmakers were insulating their brands from legal trouble, those ‘anguished’ by the show didn’t wait for the legal route.
Aashram 3 was being shot in Arera hills in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal when it was vandalised by Hindu Right-wing members.
On 24 October, the set was ransacked, director Prakash Jha roughed up and ink smeared on his face, while the mob looked for the show’s lead actor Bobby Deol. Deol family’s relationship with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — Sunny Deol is a BJP MP from Gurdaspur in Punjab — didn’t guarantee his safety. The goons alleged an “assault” on Hinduism and asked for the name of the show to be changed. A demand that Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra has now backed, while condemning the attack.
According to a report in The Indian Express, Jha has not filed a complaint or an FIR against the vandalism on the set yet.
Also read: Why godmen seem to get away with murder in Punjab and Haryana
Why is Aashram show ‘offensive’?
The show Aashram stars Bobby Deol as ‘Baba Nirala’ from a fictional place called ‘Kashipur’. The story is about police inspector Ujagar Singh investigating Baba Nirala for conning his devotees. Aashram‘s earlier seasons have been shot in various locations in Uttar Pradesh like Ayodhya and Lucknow.
At first glance, Deol’s attire and features look similar to Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of Dera Sacha Sauda who is currently in jail for rape and murder. Deol wears a white attire, accessorised with a shawl, a bracelet, a colourful turban and a yellow tika.
The series opens with scenes of caste violence on a marriage procession and shows how nobody in a hospital is willing to attend to the injured groom.
That’s when the resplendent baba walks in dressed like a maharaja followed by devotees. He has enough clout to get the doctors to move quickly. The grateful sister of the groom eventually gives up her studies and joins his ashram. That is how the baba mythology is set up in the series.
The subsequent episodes get into the workings of the ashram, which is divided into male and female sevadars and shows Baba Nirala hobnobbing with politicians and endorsing them in election campaigns, inviting a drug-using rapper into the ashram to attract youth followers, and also his sexual preferences for some of his devotees and workers. Before seducing them, the baba offers the women ladoos laced with intoxicants that are specially made in the ashram kitchen. The ashram also castrates the husbands of women that the baba prefers.
When a woman tries to escape the ashram, she is murdered by the baba’s men. Finally, it’s the groom’s sister from the first episode who manages to flee his clutches.
Also read: ‘Tum ko abhi upar se orders aajayenge’: What Asaram told us when we went to arrest him
Bajrang Dal ‘not involved’
Bajrang Dal state general secretary Khargendra Bhargava denied the involvement of his organisation in the vandalism in Bhopal saying, “It’s a case of peaceful protest that turned into a jhadap. Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad never act outside the ambit of the law. Those were youth from Hindu Samaj who shouldn’t have resorted to violence. However, Bajrang Dal wasn’t involved.”
When ThePrint asked who is Sushil Surhele, widely quoted in news reports speaking on behalf of Bajrang Dal, Bhargava said, “small-time workers say anything that comes to their mind.” Some reports call Surhele the state convenor for Bajrang Dal, others call him the central India convenor for Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
“We went to the set after the police called us to calm things down and spoke to Jha,” Bhargava told ThePrint over the phone.
Bhargava said he talked to Jha about Bajrang Dal’s problem with the name of the show, which Jha has ‘agreed’ to change. According to Bhargava, the conversation with the director was ‘amicable’.
“Ashrams are a sacred institute in Hinduism. This is where Vedas were written, where Lord Ram and Krishna were trained. These Bollywood people target Hinduism and smear all aspects of the religion. We simply want him to change the name,” he said.
When ThePrint pointed out that there have been countless cases of godmen exploiting women in their ‘ashrams’, Bhargava said, “You shouldn’t pick one or two cases and highlight them. See what happens in churches, what fathers do to boys. Will Bollywood make a show called ‘Church’ and show a Father exploiting a kid? No, it won’t, for them, Hindus are the soft target.”
This isn’t the first time Bollywood has faced hooliganism at the hands of Hindu Right-wing groups. In February this year, FIRs were registered against the makers of Saif Ali Khan-starrer Tandav and Amazon Prime’s India head for hurting Hindu sentiments. Sanjay Leela Bhansali was roughed up by members of the Karni Sena while shooting Padmaavat in 2017. They also threatened to chop off actor Deepika Padukone’s nose. The same Karni Sena members quite liked the film when it was finally released.
ThePrint tried reaching Prakash Jha via multiple calls and text messages, but there was no response at the time of publishing. We also contacted Surpreet Virk, content acquisition manager at MX Player, but she wasn’t reachable.