The trailer released last week for the upcoming X-Men movie has ruffled a few feathers within the Hindu community in the U.S., with the head of a Hindu organization objecting to a reference to the deity Krishna by one of the characters.
“Lord Krishna was meant to be worshipped in temples or home shrines and not for pushing movies for the mercantile greed of filmmakers,” Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said in a statement on his website.
The lines from the trailer for X-Men: Apocalypse that Zed took offense to come when the film’s titular villain Apocalypse, played by Oscar Isaac, says: “I have been called many things over many lifetimes — Ra, Krishna, Yahweh.”
Zed has asked the film’s director, Bryan Singer, to delete all references to Krishna from the trailer and the film unless they strictly adhere to Hindu scripture, as he says it hurts devotees and confuses “non-Hindus about Hinduism.”
X-Men: Apocalypse is set for a May 2016 release and will feature James McAvoy, Jennifer Lawrence and Michael Fassbender.
Watch the trailer below:
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Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com