There's a controversy about everything in Hollywood nowadays. Heck, even Eva Green's strange therapy technique and Kristen Bell's parenting style are stirring up trouble. Although, there definitely appears to be legitimate issues going on within the inner workings of the industry (the Harvey Weinstein scandal, most notably) but also within the creative content itself. This mainly takes the form of offensive or culturally insensitive depictions which is precisely the criticism of a couple of episodes (one in particular) of the 1990s cult-classic television series Xena: Warrior Princess. However, whether the controversy, which remains largely forgotten, behind the series (which ran from 1995 to 2001) is actually offensive in the eye of the beholder...
Lucy Lawless' Perspective Of The Hanuman Controversy On Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess, which was developed by R.J. Stewart and Spider-Man director Sam Raimi, and created by John Schulian and Robert Tapert was a hugely successful series in the 1990s and has since gone on to become a cult classic. The series was commonly praised for its depiction of a strong female protagonist in an era dominated by men, including the companion series, Hercules, which starred Kevin Sorbo.
Given the nature of the premise of the show, the creators were bound to run into some cultural issues that sparked censorship.
"I was aware of some censorship on the show," Lucy Lawless, the star of the series, explained in an interview with Emmy TV Legends. "We did the Indian episodes and we used a character called Hanuman which is a very famous and important Hindi God. Ah, Hindu God. And some guy got wind of it and started a massive campaign to clog Universal's fax machines. They didn't have inboxes at the time. It would have been-- the internet was really in its infancy. [Anyway] Universal was so upset that they were going to get rid of this and just scrap these episodes. [The episodes] were really good and very respectful to the Hanuman character."
Regardless, this nameless individual started a very effective campaign to get Universal to rescind the episodes and even punish those who decided it would be okay to feature the Hanuman character in the TV show.
"He had a brain tumor. He was a white guy living down in New Zealand, living down the bottom of New Zealand just being a pain in the a**. Finding something to get upset about. But brain tumors will do that to some people, you know?" Lucy continued. "He whipped up the entire Hindu population in America and tried to get them to get us taken off the air."
However, this nameless person's plan backfired on him greatly. Spokespeople for certain Hindu groups ended up watching the episodes and didn't seem to have the same issues with them that he did.
"In the end, they viewed the episodes and said, 'No, this is great. Here's Krishna. Here's Human.' I mean, they used them in Bollywood all the time. So, this guy was just bonkers and was holding Universal to ransom. Fortunately, common sense prevailed."
The Other Perspective Of The Hauman Controversy
While Lucy Lawless claimed that things were blown out of proportion, an article in the New York Post shed a little more light on the opposite side. While the controversy about the representation of Hanuman and Krishna in "The Way" episode of Xena: Warrior Princess may have been stirred up by a 'white guy' with a 'brain tumor' in New Zealand, some groups were indeed angry about it. At least, they were angry about it at the time.
During the campaign against Universal ad Xena: Warrior Princess, certain groups did manage to get the episode pulled off the air. During this time, it was viewed by some Hindu groups and then put back on the air. This decision caused the World Vaishnava Association to publically call out Universal for their 'dishonest' approach to the episode.
This, of course, was interference to the fact that they decided to take the episode off the air online to put it back in mid-1999.
In particular, the image of Xena headbutting the holy Hindu figure, Sri Hauman was seen as offensive to this and a couple of other groups. While moments like this were actually edited out of the original broadcast, airing the remainder of the episode still offended this group, contrary to Lucy Lawless's comments.
However, according to Lisatsering, there was a clear divide in the Hindu community within America on the four-episode India arc (which included the episode "The Way"). Additionally, numerous anti-censorship groups attempted to counteract the criticism of the show. This seemed to result in Universal airing that slightly edited version.
While "The Way" and the other three episodes in Xena: Warrior Princess' India arc may have offended some Hindu groups, the controversy seemed to die down almost immediately after 1999.