Roberts' Eat, Pray, Love shoot keeps locals out of temple

Hollywood star Julia Roberts' shooting at an ashram in Pataudi, Haryana, for Eat, Pray, Love is making media headlines but villagers are upset as they are not allowed to enter the ashram temple due to security measures.

Roberts, once the world's best-paid actress, has began the first schedule of shooting along with co-star Richard Jenkins at the Ashram Hari Mandir in Pataudi, about 40kms from New Delhi's Indira Gandhi International Airport.

However, the star's presence has also brought armed policemen, private security guards and bouncers to the venue, and the villagers are sore that they have been denied entry into their own hermitage on security grounds.

Apparently the whole ashram and the Pataudi Palace, where the 41-year-old star is staying with her three children, their nannies, the cast and crew, “have been booked”, according to a security officer.

Shakuntala Devi, a middle-aged woman, went to offer prayers at the temple with a group of women but had to return without their deity's darshan.

“Entry for devotees is barred... We were not allowed to enter and pray in the morning by the security. Only those who could manage to sneak in did so but most of us were all sent back,” Shakuntala Devi told IANS.

“It's Navratras and we must not be stopped from visiting a temple,” she added.

Kailash, a 21-year-old resident, retorted: “I am going to barge in anyhow for the evening aarti. Let me see who stops me. What is it that they are shooting that we cannot even enter our own temple?”

When asked, a Haryana police official posted at the ashram replied: “God doesn't have to go anywhere... He is going to stay right here. They (the villagers) can visit him anytime later (once the shooting is over).”

The shooting is expected to go on till the first week of October.

- IANS