A Hindi film released Friday that shows a blind woman having supernatural experiences following a cornea transplant has invited protests from doctors, who are calling the story medically wrong and misleading.

The All India Opthalmological Society (AIOS) has filed public interest litigations in the Mumbai and Delhi high courts demanding that "Naina", directed by Shripal Morakhia, be banned as it would discourage people from making or accepting eye donations.

In the film, actress Urmila Matondkar plays a 20-year-old blinded at the age of five following exposure of her eyes to a solar eclipse. Her eyesight is restored by a cornea transplant, but she starts getting supernatural experiences.

"This film is going to hinder the eye donation campaign in our country. People will be afraid to get a cornea transplantation fearing supernatural experiences, which is medically impossible," Rajvardhan Azad, secretary general of AIOS, said here Friday.

In Patna, AIOS president Ajit Sinha said blindness caused by exposure to solar eclipse is due to retinal damage and cannot be corrected by corneal grafting.

"What the film shows is not only medically incorrect but misleading," Sinha told IANS. "It's unbelievable how the film creates the myth of an evil-spirited cornea. It will discourage eye donation and corneal transplant because Hindi films influence a large section of the people."

India has around 4.8 million blind people of which around 250,000 are suffering for cornea loss.

According to the Eye Bank Association of India, which works to popularize eye donations, only 30,000 people donate eyes annually whereas there is a demand for around 100,000 cornea transplants.

Sanjay Chowdhury, joint secretary of the Delhi Opthalmological Society, said that with the scarcity of eyes for transplantation, any superstition can do even more damage.

"Blind people will hesitate to get treatment, fearing supernatural experiences," he said.

Azad claimed eye doctors were already getting queries from patients. "Many of my patients asked if they are going to get the same para-normal experiences (as in the film) after a cornea transplantation," he said.

Though director Morakhia has clarified that "Naina" is meant for "entertainment" and not to mislead people, the AIOS is hoping to get a favorable hearing in Delhi High Court May 25.

The society has also written to the information and broadcasting ministry.