After the hugely successful film Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, director and creator of the franchise Steven Spielberg was eager to get started on a follow-up. The sequel, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, came out just three years later in 1984, but was extremely different. The movie was a prequel and involved Indy taking nods from a number of other film franchises, including James Bond.
The crux of the film was that Harrison Ford’s character stumbled into a primitive village in India whose children had been stolen.
On top of that, the village’s ancient relics – the Sankara Stones – had also been stolen, prompting Indy to venture to a nearby palace to figure out the mystery.
During the inspection of the palace Indy and his sidekicks – Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan) – found a hidden temple of cultists worshipping the god Kali with human sacrifices.
Details of these aspects of the film led it to be banned in India permanently.
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Spielberg was denied shooting permission in India, meaning he had to film the India-based movie in Sri Lanka and London studios.
The aforementioned depiction of the god Kali as a blood-thirsty demon was deemed offensive to the culture.
In reality, Kali is the Goddess of Change and Empowerment – a more benevolent being, rather than a hate-filled one.
What’s more, the country was not happy about how they were portrayed in the infamous dinner scene.
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Puri later said: “It was a chance of a lifetime working with Spielberg, and I don’t regret it even for a moment.
“I don’t think I did anything anti-national; it’s really foolish to take it so seriously and get worked up over it.”
Eventually, Spielberg himself disowned the film by claiming it was too much of a scare-fest.
He hit out: “I wasn’t happy with the second film at all.”
Spielberg continued: “It was too dark, too subterranean, and much too horrific. I thought it out-poltered Poltergeist.”
He went on: “There’s not an ounce of my own personal feeling in Temple of Doom.
“The danger in making a sequel is that you can never satisfy everyone.”
The Indiana Jones franchise is available to watch on Amazon Prime Video now.
Published at Mon, 21 Jun 2021 12:09:00 +0000
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was banned in India before it was released
