TAARAK MEHTA KA OOLTA CHASMSA IN TROUBLE OVER CONTROVERSIAL EPISODE

This one might come as bad news for fans of the popular TV show Taarak Mehta Ka Oolta Chasma. The show seems to have offended members of the Sikh community, which has resulted in rise of demands for banning the show.

The members of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) have alleged that the show has hurt sentiments of the Sikh community after it portrayed a series of blasphemous acts against the community. In a statement to the media, SGPC chief Kirpal Singh Badungar said the serial had hurt the community by depicting a living character of tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh, which was "against the Sikh tenets". "No actor or any character can equate himself with the tenth Sikh Guru Gobind Singh. Such an act is unpardonable," he said.

On the other hand, Munmun Dutta aka Babita from  spoke in an interview with Bollywoodlife and said, “Gurucharan (who plays Sodhi) who is a staunch Sikh himself will never do and speak anything that goes against the sentiments of Sikhs all around the world. I clearly remember having a conversation with him about this particular sequence on the day of the shoot and he had mentioned that nobody is allowed to play Guru Gobind Singh Ji and thus he is enacting the role of his Khalsa. And that’s exactly what we shot and showed on TV. People who have raised objections about it have clearly not seen the sequence. I wish they had made the effort to see it first where the character Sodhi clearly states that he is his Khalsa and not him.”

She also said that it was all a misunderstanding because when that particular scene started, the scroll on screen introduced his character as ‘Sodhi as Guru Gobind Singh Ka Khalsa’ but apparently the ‘Ka Khalsa' got hidden behind the disclaimer scroll run by the channel.

In Episode 2287 of TMKOC, Sodhi was dressed up as Guru Gobind Singh Ji ka Khalsa. We request viewers to not misinterpret it in any other way pic.twitter.com/MhNnqg8gJl

— Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah (@TMKOC_NTF) September 15, 2017

The show went on air in the year 2008 and ever since then, it has only seen a rise and is now one of the most watched shows in the history of Indian television. TMKOC gained popularity for bringing forth a number of social issues like eve-teasing, gender roles, secularism, patriotism, women’s safety, child adoption and class discrimination—all this while being an entertaining family show. Despite its entertaining and moving content all these 10 years, it seems that the makers might not have been very lucky this time around.