Love Guru, the latest Mike Myers movie that is running in 3000 theatres across the United States is facing the ire of various Hindu groups .

The $60 million film, which had an anemic opening in North America with $14 million is doing better with increasing publicity. The film was trashed by many critics, who called it mirthless. Some even asserted that it was the un-funniest movie of the year so far.

Deepak Chopra, friend and spiritual adviser to Myers, said in an interview earlier this year that Hindu critics had a religious agenda against the film.

“They will create our publicity. They are going to help us,” he said of the critics. “The more noise they make, the more popular the film will be, more people will begin to relate to Indian philosophy.”

The protests against the Love Guru, started with the Nevada-based activist Rajan Zed, who gave the first-ever Hindu invocation at the US Senate last summer. The protest rapidly spread across the web.

The protestors believe the film lampoons Hinduism and other than launching a petition drive to boycott the film, they have asked the Motion Picture Association of America to suspend the studio behind it, Paramount, for “unethical and unprofessional business practices”.
Protestors say the film hurts the sentiments of the Hindu community.

The Hindu group has got unexpected help from a Catholic group. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has classified the movie as offensive.

But progressive Hindus like Guru Deepak Chopra and ordinary people do not share their views and want to ignore the movie like just another dud this summer.