An Indian film poster depicting a woman smoking a cigarette while dressed as the Hindu goddess Kali has caused anger.
Leena Manimekalai, director of Kaali, tweeted the poster for her film on Saturday. It was described as a performance documentary.
It has prompted hundreds of angry responses from Hindus who accuse her of offending their religious sentiments.
Millions of Hindu goddesses of destruction like Kali are worshipped.
Ms Manimekalai was the most popular name on Indian social media, as many demanded her arrest.
According to the BBC, the Canadian-born filmmaker is currently studying in Canada. She said that the goddess she portrays in her film “champions humankind and embraces diversity”.
She said, “As a poet/filmmaker, I embody Kaali through my own independent vision.”
India is sensitive about the depiction onscreen of religious figures. The country’s censor board requested several cuts to the Bollywood movie Angry Indian Goddesses (2015), which featured images of Hindu goddesses.
Other actors and filmmakers have also been protested for using religious references or themes in their movies.
Recent protests in India were also triggered by comments made about the Prophet Muhammad by a politician. Two Muslim men were arrested by Rajasthan police last week for allegedly killing a Hindu man. They claimed that the act was in retaliation to the comments.
Many Twitter users claimed that the poster depicting the goddess was offensive to Hinduism and demanded legal action against the filmmaker.
Others asked that all religious sentiments be respected.
Vinit Goenka spoke for the Bharatiya Janata Party and said that the project of the goddess hurt the sentiments of Indians around the world. He asked the Indian government not to remove the tweet.
One Delhi lawyer tweeted that he had filed a police complaint against Ms Manimekalai.
The director is originally from Tamil Nadu in southern India. She is currently studying film at Toronto. The Toronto Metropolitan University selected her as one of 18 graduate students to work on multiculturalism.
According to Ms Manimekalai, the film is a candid shot of her dressed up as a goddess and walking through downtown Toronto.
She says, “In my movie, Kaali chooses to be a spirit and holds a Pride flag with a camera in her hand and meets the First Nations (indigenous People), the People of African and Asian, Persian descent and the Jews, Christians, and Muslims. It’s a mini-universe one can capture across any cross section of Canada.”
In Ms Manimekalai’s filmography, deities are a common theme. Her documentary Goddesses, which she made in 2007, was shown at the Munich and Mumbai film festivals. Maadathy, her 2019 film, was a fictional tale about a young girl of a marginalised caste who is made into a deity.
Ms Manimekalai claims that the poster shows the goddess loving her fellow man as she accepts a cigarette from the Kensington Market-bound working-class residents.
She adds that at village festivals in south India, people dress up as Kali and drink country liquor while dancing.
“We artists can’t be choked by fear. She said that we need to be louder, and more powerful.
