A mock protest against a Dileep film takes a potshot at religious groups

More than any other kind of censorship, film-makers and other creative artistes of our times are faced with the sword of self-censorship. Before writing every line of the script or shooting a scene, those behind the film now think carefully on whether there’s anything that would offend anyone, whether there’s anything that could lead to ‘sentiments’ of some group of individuals or sect being hurt.

The risks of such ‘hurt sentiments’ is by now all too familiar to everyone involved in the arts. Violent mobs could land up at your doorstep or at the theatre, tearing up posters and burning effigies. The more ‘tolerant’ ones might take the legal route. Most artistes find the media circus and the unrelenting pressure that follows to be an unwanted distraction, which is at best avoided right at the creation phase, by being extra careful.

So, it was refreshing to see a group under the banner of the fake religion called ‘Dinkoism’ holding a mock protest in front of actor Dileep’s restaurant in Kochi this past week, over his new film ‘Professor Dinkan.’ The idea of such a religion was floated online sometime ago as a way to take gentle pot-shots at various religious groups that takes offence at the drop of a hat.

The presiding deity of the group is ‘Dinkan’, the rat with superpowers featured in the children’s magazine Balamangalam , which happens to be the ‘holy book’ of the group. Drawing on the templates of protest by traditional religious groups, they held placards and stood in front of the actor’s restaurant, asking him to change the name of the movie and to not offend their sentiments. The Dinkoists also took a high moral ground and said that they believe in peaceful and democratic protests.

Shafi, the scriptwriter of the film, played along and issued a ‘clarification’ saying that the film does not have anything to do with their deity ‘Dinkan.’ Rather, it is the short form of the lead character’s name, Dipankuran.

Hope the other groups who have made taking offence a habit gets the message that the ‘Dinkoists’ are trying to convey.

Long before the advent of social media, the method adopted to whip a new movie was rather primitive.

Whoever wanted to ensure its failure, and it’s a badly kept secret that a section of the industry turns more delirious on seeing the failure of their rivals than on their own success, hired some hooligans to incessantly boo through the film on its initial days.

The target was two-fold: rupture its initial collection and create adverse word-of-mouth publicity.

Now their more sophisticated brethren have embarked on the social media to give a disparaging review followed by a star rating out of five. This is then spread through the social media like wildfire to kill a movie at the box-office sometimes even before the first day’s first show is over.

There is even a dedicated group engaged in circulating a particularly bad rating on multiple social media platforms. Even unsuspecting film goers inadvertently become part of it by sharing such posts.

So even before audience adequate enough to form even a decent sample size to pass the verdict have watched the movie, these invisible critics would have passed judgment.

Filmmaker Abrid Shine’s latest flick Action Hero Biju was also not spared by these “critics.” No sooner than the initial show was over, a review rating the film and giving it just one-and-a-half out of five stars appeared in the social media. A wannabe filmmaker, who shared it, admitted that he was yet to watch the movie.

While good films manage to overcome such attacks, directors and producers admitted that this online onslaught may have its influence on the initial days of release.

( Reporting by

S.R. Praveen and

G. Krishnakumar)