Bajrang Dal men vandalize shooting spot of ‘Aashram 3’ in Bhopal, manhandle director Prakash Jha

By Express News Service

BHOPAL: Activists of the Bajrang Dal (BD) allegedly went on the rampage during the ongoing shooting of Prakash Jha-directed web series ‘Aashram 3’ in Bhopal, ransacking property, including vehicles and also assaulting crew members on Sunday evening.

Alleging that the web series was defaming Sanatan Dharma, activists of the right wing Hindu outfit also allegedly threw ink on Jha and reportedly manhandled him.  

Led by their Prant Sanyojak Sushil Sudole, around 100-200 Bajrang Dal activists entered the Old Jail premises and started to protest against the shooting of the Bobby Deol-starrer web series. They ransacked the crew’s property and five vehicles including a vanity van.

When the shooting crew members resisted the violent protests by the saffron brigade activists, the men attacked the shooting crew, injuring some of them. Visuals of shooting crew men being attacked with rods went viral.

While accusing Jha of defaming the Sanatan Dharma through the web series, the Bajrang Dal men allegedly threw ink on Jha and also reportedly manhandled him. The violent mob also misbehaved with some media personnel present at the spot.

Coming to know about the violence during the shooting, police was rushed to the spot. DIG (Bhopal range) Irshad Wali himself rushed to the spot and controlled the situation from worsening further.

The protesting saffron brigade activists later jammed the road for around 40 minutes, demanding change in the web series title, failing which they wouldn’t allow the shooting of web series to continue.

“The Madhya Pradesh government has allowed shooting of films and web series to promote tourism and not to defame our religion. It has been shown in the series that a man is made impotent and his wife is sexually exploited inside the Ashram, which defames our Sanatan Dharma,” Sudole said.

“What does Prakash Jha know about Sanatan Dharma? Our religion has existed since ages when Jha’s forefathers were not even born. How can he defame our religion. We’ve told Jha clearly that unless he changes the title of the presently titled Ashram-3, we won’t allow the shooting to continue in Bhopal or anywhere else in MP. He (Jha) has assured to rename the series,” he added.

While admitting that some angry activists could have thrown ink on the filmmaker, the Bajrang Dal leader denied that the protestors indulged in violence. “Our protest was totally non-violent,” he maintained.

Raising ‘Prakash Jha-Bobby Deol sharm karo’ slogans, the Bajrang Dal activists were highly critical of Bobby Deol acting in the concerned web series, saying he should learn from his elder brother and BJP MP Sunny Deol, who is known for doing patriotic films.

Meanwhile, DIG Wali said that heavy police force has been deployed at the venue of the shooting and action would be taken against those who indulged in violence. However, he added that the police were yet to receive a complaint from Prakash Jha or other people of the shooting crew.

“We haven’t received any complaint from the makers of the web series, but even if they don’t complain about the incident, we will act on our own and all those who indulged in the violence will be identified and arrested promptly. The shooting crew has been assured of full security,” Wali said.