Madhu Patel
A large group of Indian Americans across the country have strongly pitched Netflix to reconsiderbefore hosting of anime TV shows “Record of Ragnarok”, which they have called as “highly disturbing to them” as it trivializes immensely revered deity Lord Shiva.
The pitch is that Lord Shiva is meant to be worshipped in temples and home shrines not to be thrown around loosely or dragged around unnecessarily in anime TV series for mercantile gains.
The protestis led by RajanZed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism, who pointed out Hindu gods and goddesses deemed divine and entertainment companies with projects about/around them need showing true depiction as mentioned in the scriptures. Inappropriately reimagining Hindu deities/concepts/scriptures/symbols/icons and redefining Hinduism for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the feelings of devotees.
Netflix co-CEOs Reed Hastings and Ted Sarandos are urged to earnestly look into this issue before finally okaying the release of “Record of Ragnarok” reportedly set to premiere in June.
Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.2 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought and it should not be taken frivolously. No faith, larger or smaller, should be mishandled, Rajan Zed noted.
The proposed TV shows directed by Masao Okubo; Lord Shiva (voiced by Tatsuhisa Suzuki) would be shown participating in a one-on-one fighting match with humans.
Netflix, headquartered in Los Gatos (California) and whose idea was born in 1997, claims to be the world’s leading streaming entertainment service with 204 million paid memberships in over 190 countries.
