Movie on Sathya Sai Baba launched

All dancing, all singing, all cover-up Bollywood-type promo?

A large number of films – sold mostly as videos – have already been made about Sathya Sai Baba – but none have had the success and world-wide audience that the BBC 1-hour documentary achieved. (See here). So his followers intend to try to make a full-length film to promote him as a philanthropist, miracle man etc. There will be no mention, we can be assured, of the large number of sexual abuse allegations that the Supreme Court rejected out-of-hand, nor the infamous murders in his bedroom while he stood by and was implicated but protected by the Indian government, nor the fraudulent ‘materializations’ also caught on diverse film clips and videos, nor yet of the gigantic claims of being the Incarnate Godhead, Creator of the Universe and countless other impossible fantasies he promulgated about himself and his works (see some here). The article about this film went on to state:-

“The film will be directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, the Telugu filmmaker. He announced “This film will showcase the services done by Sai Baba and his love for the people. Puttaparthy became world famous only due to Satyasai. We are making this film in many languages. A prominent actor is going to essay the role of Sathya sai. We will announce the complete details of it soon”

This film will doubtless appeal to hard-necked devotees and a section of Indian religious nationalists, but one may predict that it will not be a success outside India and some of the diaspora. Not after all that has now become know and reportedly made Sathya Sai Baba a despised person in much of India, especially the North. Perhaps they might do better if they got the services of a major figure like Johhny Depp, Sean Connery or some similar unexpected figure to play the Divine fraud!