NEW DELHI - Hollywood's production of a movie in which Jesus Christ visits the Indian subcontinent during his "missing years" may end up creating confusion and controversy, Catholic church leaders in India have warned.
"There is no historic proof to show Jesus came to India and the Church has apprehensions that such portrayal could create confusion," commented Father Paul Thelekat, a spokesman for the Catholic Church in India's Kerala state.
The script for the movie, "The Aquarian Gospel", was inspired by Levi Dowling's "The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ", Nicholas Notovitch's "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ", and from what movie producers John F Sullivan and William Sees Keenan describe as "the lost gospels that shed light on Jesus' secret teachings predating the four canonised gospels", according to the Hollywood Reporter.
It portrays Jesus as a wandering mystic who travelled across India, living in Buddhist monasteries and speaking out against the iniquities of the country's caste system.
Sullivan and Keenan claim to have unravelled the life of Jesus between the ages of 13 and 30, a period untouched by the recognised gospel accounts.
"I literally felt goose bumps when Will told me this story, and knew immediately it was my next project," said director Drew Heriot, according to the Reporter.
"The Bible devotes just seven words to the most formative years of Yeshua's life saying: 'The boy grew in wisdom and stature,'" Heriot noted in another interview, referring to Jesus by what is believed to be his name in Aramaic.
"The film will follow Christ's journey to the east where he encounters other traditions, and discovers the principles that are the bedrock of all the world's great religions."
