A New Year’s event featuring actor Sunny Leone in Uttar Pradesh’s Mathura was cancelled after some priests raised serious objections to it, calling the event “inappropriate” in a religious city.
The Bollywood actor, who was also a former adult star, was set to perform as a DJ at a hotel in the city on January 1, even announcing her gig in a promotional video on her Instagram page. “I am super excited to tell you that I am coming to Mathura on 1st January as a DJ to kickstart the New Year with an unforgettable night,” Leone said in the video.
After the details of the event, which was to be held for a limited audience of 300 people, became public, several seers, saints and religious leaders began objecting to the event, demanding that it be cancelled.
In a letter to the District Magistrate on Monday, December 29, Dinesh Falahari, a prominent Hindutva leader and the main petitioner in the Krishna Janmabhoomi temple case, wrote, “Mathura is a divine land. Devotees from all over the world come here to pray. By organising such events, the organisers are trying to incite religious sentiments and tarnish the religious city.”
“This event should be cancelled and action should be taken against the organisers,” he said in his letter.
Amid uproar, the hotel cancelled the event. Hotel owner Mitul Pathak said Leone was set to perform as a DJ and “not in any other capacity.”
“Despite this, we decided to cancel the programme in view of social and religious sentiments,” Pathak told the Times of India.
