The Allahabad High Court has directed the makers of the film Adipurush to appear before it in person, remarking that the movie contains “vulgar and shameful” depiction of Hindu deities, reported Bar and Bench.

Directed by Om Raut, Adipurush is an adaption of the Hindu epic Ramayana. It stars Prabhas, Saif Ali Khan, Kriti Sanon, Sunny Singh and Devdutta Nage. The film has been criticised on social media for its dialogues and visual effects.

A bench of Justices Rajesh Singh Chauhan and Shree Prakash Singh passed the order while hearing a batch of petitions calling for a ban on the film. The High Court has asked Raut, producer Bhushan Kumar and dialogue writer Manoj Muntashir to appear before it on July 27.

The bench criticised the filmmakers for not respecting the sanctity of characters from the Ramayana.

“So many scenes of the film depicting Devi Sita are disgraceful to her very character and some scenes depicting wife of Vibhishana are prima-facie obscene also which are absolutely unwarranted and uncalled for,” the High Court noted, according to Bar and Bench. “Even depiction of Ravan, his Lanka etc. is so ridiculous and cheap. Those facts have been narrated in both the PILs [Public Interest Litigations] properly enclosing the relevant material.”

At its last hearing on Wednesday, the bench had suggested that even a short documentary on the Quran with discrepancies would cause a stir. The judges, however, had clarified that the court was equally concerned about the sentiments of all religions and they should not be depicted in a bad light.