When Chiranjeevi’s ‘Abu’ offended Muslim sentiments

Remember that Megastar Chiranjeevi was supposed to be seen in a dream film of sorts.  It was a Telugu-Tamil-English magnum opus which wanted to be a ‘Baahubali’ much before ‘Baahubali’ happened.  It was Suresh Krishna-directed ‘Abu: Baghdad Gaja Donga’.  The film had an Islamic backdrop.  

The project went on the floors and was shot for a few months.  It was shelved after the makers encountered certain difficulties.  It had to do with “offending” the religious sentiments of Muslims.  

The trouble began when the rumour went out that the makers of the film dipped pages of the Holy Quran in tea to make the pages look authentically old.  The Indian-Hollywood project was shelved allegedly after stiff opposition to it from some unnamed Muslim outfits.  This is perhaps one of the very few big-ticket Chiranjeevi projects to be cancelled besides Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Vinalani Undhi’ with the Megastar.  

Context: Today, some members of the Muslim community reportedly opposed the shoot of ‘Sye Raa’ in Karnataka’s Bidar over “offending” religious sentiments.  Ram Charan’s production house has decided to can the portions in Hyderabad instead.