Lucknow/Varanasi (UP) | Amid a raging controversy over "Adipurush", a group of people staged a protest in Varanasi and tore posters of the film and the Hindu Mahasabha lodged a complaint with the Lucknow police against its makers on Monday.

Joining the chorus against the film, the Samajwadi Party said the faithful are hurt by its "cheap and superficial dialogues" and that the film was part of an "agenda".

"Adipurush", a retelling of the epic Ramayana directed by Om Raut, was released on Friday. It has been panned over its colloquial dialogues and controversial depiction of some characters.

Protesting against the film in Varanasi, activists of a Hindu outfit tore its posters and appealed to people not to watch it.

The activists gathered at a temple and marched to a mall in the Sigra area, raising slogans against the film.

They demanded that its screening be stopped and tried to enter the mall, but were stopped by police.

In state capital Lucknow, office-bearers of the Hindu Mahasabha lodged a complaint at Hazratganj police station and demanded that a case be registered against the actors, producer and director of the film.

A case is yet to be registered in this connection, police said.

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said the Censor Board should check the "political character certificate" of those who play with the faith of people by making films with an agenda using the money of their political masters.

"Has the Censor Board become Dhritarashtra?" he asked in a tweet. Dhritarashtra, the father of the Kauravas, was a blind king in the epic Mahabharata.

Another Samajwadi Party leader, Shivpal Yadav, alleged that efforts are being made to belittle the great and inspiring character of Lord Ram and his story through cinema with "cheap and superficial dialogues".

"Crores of Sanatani believers are hurt. For this act, the so-called 'sanatani' BJP people should tender an apology to the country...do not defame Lord Ram," he tweeted in Hindi.