Hindu activists block film-maker's plan for Chaplin statue in India

Hindu activists in India have blocked an attempt to put up a statue of Charlie Chaplin for use in a movie, claiming a monument to a non-Hindu close to their temple is offensive, a film-maker said today. Hemant Hegde, a film-maker who was building the 67ft (20-metre) statue of the Hollywood legend to use as a backdrop to a dance routine in his new film, told the CNN-IBN news channel he had been forced to stop work by a band of Hindu activists. "I'm really surprised that people would associate Charlie Chaplin with being a Christian and not allowing the statue," he said. Chaplin, who was baptised into the Church of England, was an avowed agnostic. Hardline Hindus have routinely protested against the perceived invasion of India by Western culture, recently targeting Valentine's Day celebrations, couples caught in public displays of affection and women drinking in bars. The proposed site of the statue was some 300 metres from the local Hindu temple near the coastal town of Udupi in the southern state of Karnataka. Television footage showed activists filling up the large pit that had been dug for the foundations. Hegde said he hoped to leave the statue up after the film shoot as a tourist attraction but was now scouting new locations. A local politician from the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party said there was no place for Charlie Chaplin in his area. "If the locals are against such a statue, I am also against it," he told the Times of India. "Why should one bother so much about Charlie Chaplin, who was not even an Indian?" Jayamala, actor and president of the Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, said: "How can anyone discriminate against an artist on the basis of religion or caste? Chaplin belongs to all." Rajeev Gowda, professor of economics and social sciences at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, said: "These people must be crazy. Chaplin was an artist who made movies against dictatorship, against the oppression of workers. He united workers and doesn't belong only to the west."