Row over Rampal

Actor Arjun Rampal, who is married to former beauty queen and supermodel Mehr Jesia, could never have imagined that a nostalgic comment he made to men’s magazine GQ (August 2009) about entering a fire temple when he was a child would bring down on his own head and that of his Parsi in-laws the wrath of a section of the community.

Speaking from London Rampal told Mid Day of August 7, 2009: "I am deeply upset and concerned about the reaction towards my statement. I was around eight years old when I wandered into the compound of a fire temple while playing with friends. I was caught and allowed to go because I was mistaken as a Parsi by the caretaker…I hold Parsis in high respect. If my actions have hurt anyone’s sentiments, I deeply apologize.”

Arjun Rampal: mistaken as a Parsi

His fuming critics are far from satisfied. Dinshaw Mehta, chairman of the Bombay Parsi Punchayet (BPP) said to Mid Day: "Arjun is boasting about going into a fire temple and that has hurt the community. If you break a signal you don’t boast about it... We are a peace loving community and want people to respect our views.” However, BPP trustee Jimmy Mistry feels: "The controversy has been blown out of proportion and words have been taken out of context. It’s a non-issue.”

His is a view that Firoza Punthakey-Mistree, wife of BPP trustee and WAPIZ (World Alliance of Parsi Irani Zar­thoshtis) founder Khojeste Mistree does not agree with. She informed The Times of India (TOI) of August 8, 2009, "everybody in Mumbai knows that non-Parsis are not allowed to enter the fire temple” and hence Rampal should not only apologize to the community but should identify the temple so that it can be "purified.” Her husband told TOI, "What Rampal has done is unethical. He could have been more sensitive.”

The WAPIZ Page in The Free Press Journal of August 7, 2009 has castigated the actor as "being a deceitful, immoral and unethical man” for "brazenly admitting in print to have entered an agiary (fire temple)” which shows that "he has no respect for the Parsi-Irani community or for the sanctity of our religious places of worship… Arjun Rampal needs to apologize to the Parsi-Irani community and confess to which fire temple he has desecrated, so that we can take necessary ritual action.”

Rampal informed TOI that he was deeply upset that his remark about an incident that had occurred when he was a child had aroused such feelings. "I have always thought of the Parsis as respectable and enterprising people and would not change my opinion on this. If the actions of an eight-year-old boy have hurt the sentiments of anyone, I deeply apologize for it.”