Andhra Pradesh   

`The Da Vinci Code' screening cancelled in A.P.

Special Correspondent

Protestors break windowpanes of ticket counter, raise slogans

HYDERABAD: Some Christian groups attacked the Prasads Imax theatre, here, where the controversial film `The Da Vinci Code' was to be released here on Friday.

Angry protestors arrived an hour before the scheduled time of the show raising slogans against the film and broke the windowpanes of the ticket counter in the plush multiplex. Dubbing the film "a devil's code", they forced their way in demanding the management to immediately stop the screening.

However, Public Relations Manager of the multiplex Chris Kishen claimed that they had decided to cancel the screening of the film in the morning itself. "We had even put up notices prominently in the theatre, but the protestors did not appear to have seen them," he maintained.

Asked why the screening was cancelled when the High Court had cleared the decks for its release, he said "it being a sensitive issue we did not want to take any risk. Further, with a couple of blockbusters being released the same day and a large number of people thronging the multiplex, we thought it would affect them as also our property."

The Saifabad police booked a case under Section 147(unlawful assembly) and Section 427(damaging property) based on a complaint lodged by security incharge of the multiplex Adinarayana. Archbishop of Hyderabad diocese Marampudi Joji was unavailable for comment as he was in his `annual recollection', a practice wherein clerics refrain from any kind of communication with others for three days.

President of United Front for Dalit Christian Rights G. Alfred said the incident only reflected the growing resentment against the film. The State Government is contemplating filing of a writ appeal against the court verdict quashing the ban on the film.

With the High Court giving the green signal for the screening on Wednesday and theatres already engaged for this Friday's releases, the film's distributor Sony Pictures had little time to go for a State-wide release and managed to zero in on the Prasads multiplex alone for a low key release.

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