Actor Puneet Rajakumar's song Sum sumne from his second film, Abhi, has Karnataka's Jain community up in arms.
They are offended by two of its lines referring to Gomateswara, a highly revered Jain digamber saint.
The naked statue of Gomateswara or Bahubali, the son of the first Jain tirtankara Adinatam, in the temple town of Sravanabelagola is the world's tallest monolithic statue.
A delegation of Jains complained to Veerendra Heggade, the pontiff of Dharmasthala. Though the lines of the song do not directly make any unpleasant allusions to the saint, the Jains say the allusion to this particular statue is an irreverent, if indirect, reference to its nudity.
The song was penned by Bhangiranga, who first caught the Rajakumar clan's fancy when he penned the lyrics for Nanjundi Kalyana, starring Kannada superstar Dr Rajakumar's second son, Raghavendra.
Olage seridare gandu, Hudugi aaguvalu gandu (if liquor goes into a girl, she becomes like a man), proved popular. The film, and Raghavendra, were a success. Almost every film produced by the Rajakumar family since has a song penned by Bhangiranga.
Rajakumar's eldest son Shiv Rajakumar is a highly popular star in Kannada cinema.
It remains to be seen how the Rajakumars will respond. Film industry sources believe they will either delete the offensive lines or clarify they meant no irreverence. Rajakumar is known to be a deeply religious person.
Earlier, the opening lines of a song in Puneet's first film, Appu, Taliban alla alla (I am not the Taliban), was found to be in poor taste coming as it did soon after 9/11.
But the song and the film became a great hit with the masses.
High hopes are pinned on Abhi, which is expected to release in May.
