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Hindus Protest Charlie Chaplin Statue Near Temple

The Associated Press

Charlie Chaplin, left, and Jackie Coogan appear in a scene from Chaplin's 1921 silent film, 'The Kid.'

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The Associated Press

Published: March 17, 2009

NEW DELHI - Hindu activists have stymied an effort to put up a statue of Charlie Chaplin for use in a movie, claiming a monument to a non-Hindu close to their temple was offensive, the filmmaker said Sunday.

Hemant Hegde, a filmmaker who was building the 67-foot (20-meter) statue of the legendary Hollywood comic to use as a backdrop to a dance routine in his new film, told the CNN-IBN news channel he was forced to halt 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 baptized into the Church of England, was a self-avowed agnostic.

Hard-line Hindus have routinely protested against the perceived invasion of Western culture into India, 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 yards (meters) 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 lawmaker from the main opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party said there was no place for Charlie Chaplin in his region.

"If the locals are against such a statue, I am also against it," he told the Times of India newspaper. "Why should one bother so much about Charlie Chaplin, who was not even an Indian?"

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