Actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub (Chhalaang) has become the latest target of Indian far right politicians for portraying Hindu God Shiva in a stage play in Amazon Prime Video’s web series “Tandav”, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar (Bharat).

The makers of the web series released a statement this morning to address the “large number of grievances and petitions received on various facets of the web series” and unconditionally apologised “if it (the show) has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments”.

Cinemania takes a look at other Indian actors who have portrayed Hindu God Shiva as part of a comedy scene in the past.

Rajnikanth

Tamil superstar Rajnikanth (Enthiran) portrayed Hindu God Shiva in a brief comedy scene in the 1993 comedy drama “Uzhaippali”. The actor, in an attempt to evade capture by the police, disguises himself as Hindu God Shiva, and asks for a lift from a moped-rider who happens to be a temple priest and obliges believing it’s the God himself. The priest and Rajnikanth are chased by the cops along the busy roads resulting in accidents, chaos and traffic congestion along the route before Rajnikanth requests the priest to pull over because he needs to go the toilet and runs off.

The scene was applauded by audiences and broadcast multiple times on TV channels without invoking any outrage. The film was also successful at the box office.

Kamal Hassan

Indian acting legend Kamal Haasan (Hey Ram) depicted Hindu God Shiva in a funny scene in comedy drama “Pammal K. Sambandam” (2002). In the scene, stunt double Haasan gets a last minute request from a director to portray the role of Hindu God Shiva as the actor who was originally cast for that role doesn’t turn up to the shoot. Haasan wears the makeup and costume of the character, however he struggles to deliver the dialogues expected of him. The director then asks Haasan to chew a gum and just move his lips so he can use someone else’s voice for the dialogues during the post-production. The filming is interrupted by a group of animal rights activists who storm the film set, protesting against the usage of snake and bull for filming. As the filmmakers and activities have a row, the snake slithers down Haasan’s body and mixes with the crowd causing chaos followed by a chase sequence resulting in Haasan getting hit by the bull and ending up in a hospital.

The scene did not draw any outrage from right wing activists at that time and “Pammal K. Sambandam” was successful at the box office.

Anil Charanjeett

Anil Charanjeett (Sanju) dressed himself up as Hindu God Shiva in the 2014 satirical comedy drama “PK”, directed by Rajkumar Hirani, starring Aamir Khan and Anushka Sharma.

In a comedy scene, Charanjeett is spotted by an alien in human form (Aamir Khan) in a men’s toilet and is chased along the streets.

The scene drew the ire of right wing groups who demanded a ban on the film and vandalised some cinemas screening the comedy drama.

Despite the controversy, “PK” was highly successful at the box office (domestic and international) and emerged as the highest grossing Indian film at that time.

Dayashankar Pandey

Actor Dayashankar Pandey played the role of an imposer wearing the costume of Hindu God Shiva in the 2018 satirical comedy drama “Mohalla Assi”.

The film is an adaptation of 2014 Hindi novel Kashi Ka Assi and revolves around the commercialization of the city of Varanasi and fake gurus who lure the foreign tourists.

In a funny scene in the film, Pandey, dressed as Hindu God Shiva, puts his foot on temple priest Sunny Deol’s chest and mouths expletives. The scene, which was part of the film’s trailer, drew outrage from far right groups.

The Indian censor board refused to certify the film and banned it for “hurting religious sentiments” in 2016, however the makers appealed against that decision in a New Delhi court and were allowed to release the film with an 18+ age rating in 2018.