The “objectionable” church scene featuring Randeep Hooda in Sunny Deol’s actioner Jaat has been removed after backlash from the Christian community, director Gopichand Malineni said in a statement on Friday.

“There has been a backlash for a specific scene in the film. The scene has been removed from the film with immediate effect. Our intention was not to hurt any religious sentiments. We deeply regret it and have taken a quick action of deleting the scene from the film. We sincerely apologise to everyone whose beliefs have been hurt,” Malineni wrote on X.

The now-deleted scene reportedly shows Hooda's character, antagonist Ranatunga, standing under a crucifix inside a church. Ranatunga goes on to wreak havoc inside the church in the next scene.

The scene led to a complaint against Deol and Hooda with the Sadar police station in Jalandhar. The Christian community had also planned protests outside cinema halls screening the film, however, local police intervened and prevented the gatherings. Following this incident, they issued an ultimatum of two days, warning that the agitation would escalate if their concerns weren’t addressed.

Director Gopichand Malineni and producers Umesh Kumar Bansal, Naveen Yerneni, Ravi Shankar. Y, and T.G Vishwa Prasad were also reportedly named in the complaint.

They were booked under Section 299 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), per reports.

"The director, writer and producer deliberately released this film during the holy month of Good Friday and Easter so that the Christians get angry and riots break out in the entire country and unrest is spread," the complainant alleged, while demanding a ban on the movie.

Also starring Vineet Kumar Singh, Regina Cassandra, Saiyami Kher and Swarupa Ghosh, the Mythri Movie Makers-backed actioner hit theatres on April 10. The film has raked in Rs 64.46 crore nett in India since its release, according to industry data-tracking platform Sacnilk.

Amid the raging controversy, Sunny announced a sequel to Jaat on Thursday.