SC protects filmmaker from arrest over poster

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday protected filmmaker Leena Manimekalai from arrest and other coercive processes in connection with multiple criminal cases lodged against her over a poster of her documentary film featuring a woman dressed as Goddess Kali and smoking.

The reprieve from a bench headed by CJI Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud came even as Manimekalai recorded her statement in the court that she did not intend to hurt religious sentiments of anyone and that the depiction of the Goddess was to show her in an “inclusive sense”.

The bench, which also included justice PS Narasimha, directed that she will not be subjected to any coercive process, including arrest, in the wake of the FIRs registered against her over the poster. The court issued notices to the states of Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh for clubbing of the FIRs at one place. “List the petition on February 20, 2023. In the meantime, no coercive steps shall be taken against petitioner either on basis of the FIRs as noted above or pursuant to any other FIR which may have been or will be lodged in relation to the same offence,” stated the court order.

The Madurai-born filmmaker shared the poster of Kaali on Twitter in July 2022, and said the documentary was part of the “Rhythms of Canada” segment at the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto.

It triggered a controversy on social media, and Indian High Commission in Toronto even asked the authorities in Canada for removal of the posters.

Kaali is a film that takes the premise of Goddess Kaali taking over a human body and roaming around the city streets. “In Tamil Nadu, Kali is believed to be a pagan goddess. She drinks arrack, smokes beedi and dances wild … that is the Kali I had embodied for the film,” Manimekalai told The Guardian last year.

HT Leena Manimekalai