A few days ago, a dance video featuring two dancers at the Mylapore Kapaleeshwarar temple in Chennai ignited controversy, drawing criticism from Hindus and Hindu organisations. The dancers, identified as Vignesh K Balan and a companion, gained attention for their performance set to the song “Mylapore Mayile” from the movie Aai, as reported in The Commune.
The video went viral on social media platforms, leading to a strong backlash from believers who found the act of dancing wearing inappropriate clothing within the sacred temple premises inappropriate. Critics directed their disapproval at the performers and the DMK Minister of Hindu Religious & Charitable Endowments department, PK Sekar Babu.
Only recently, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court issued a significant ruling, asserting that “a temple is a place of worship, not a picnic spot.” This declaration further added to the discontent among devotees regarding activities that deviate from the sacred nature of the temples.
Indu Makkal Katchi declared its intention to file a complaint against the dancers involved in the video. They reminded the government of their decision not to telecast the consecration of the Ram Mandir in Tamil Nadu temples. They raised questions about the permissibility of playing item songs and dancing within these religious spaces.
Netizens expressed dissatisfaction with the dancers’ bias toward establishing social justice in temples. They urged him to promote equality by featuring dance performances in churches and mosques, not just Hindu temples.
Vignesh K Balan issued a video clarification and apology in response to the growing criticism. He explained that the video, shot at the Mylapore Kapaleeshwarar Temple in December, was posted on his social media accounts then. Expressing regret for any offence caused, he assured viewers that such instances would not occur in the future and emphasised that the misunderstanding stemmed from how the video was perceived.
He said, “We went to the Mylapore Kabaleeswarar Temple last December. We made a dance video there. I posted that video in December. From yesterday, we started getting lots of comments on that video. When we saw, we came to know that the video had reached the people in a wrong sense and immediately I deleted it. In Twitter also we saw and it has got projected very differently. Henceforth, we won’t make such videos. We won’t do such dance videos for songs like that in the temple. It’s entirely our mistake. We accept it. Because of us, the temple management and HR&CE department would’ve got problems. We apologize to them. I also ask sorry to those who have been offended on seeing that video. I will ensure that such instances won’t happen in the future.”, Vignesh said in an X post tagging the Tamil Nadu HR&CE department.
It is also learned that the HR &CE department filed a cyber crime case on these individuals after the outrage.
This incident follows previous controversies related to religious activities in Tamil Nadu, including the apprehension of Hindu Munnani activists and Yadav Maha Sabha members in November 2023, when they were prevented from offering prayers and chanting religious chants at a temple.
