Religious outcry: Allah Allah song goes off air

With less than a fortnight to go for the release of

Nataraja Service

, the team nearly had a nightmarish experience when it seemed that the film may not hit theatres. 'I was in Tirupati, working on the script of my next with Puneeth Rajkumar, when I got a call from my team that certain religious factions had contacted them with reservations about the representation of a

maulavi

(

P Ravi Shankar

's character) in the film. They wanted to stop the film's release, but I asked them not to jump to conclusion before watching it. We organized a screening for several religious leaders, who, after seeing the film, asked only for a couple of changes. Overall, though, they were very happy with the film, as there is a strong Muslim-Hindu bond in the story,' says director

Pavan Wadeyar

.
The changes that the Muslim leaders asked for were primarily in the viral hit song

Allah Allah

, which features Ravi Shankar. 'Even though the song is very popular, I had to take it down from the video-sharing portal that it was on. The leaders had reservations about Ravi Shankar holding a gun in the song, which we have now digitally removed. There were a couple of other minor alterations that had to be done that we have carried out,' explains the filmmaker.