Bollywood legend Paresh Rawal has set off a storm with the poster of his upcoming film The Taj Story. The artwork shows him lifting the dome of the Taj Mahal to reveal a statue of Lord Shiva inside — a bold visual that has exploded into controversy online.
Directed by Tushar Amrish Goel, the film also stars Zakir Hussain, Amruta Khanvilkar, and Senha Wagh. But the spotlight is firmly on its theme, not the cast.
The poster revives historian PN Oak’s disputed theory that the Taj Mahal was once a Shiva temple called *Tejo Mahalaya, a claim rejected by mainstream historians but repeatedly resurfacing in India’s political and cultural debates. In 2022, a petition even demanded the opening of the monument’s “sealed rooms” to search for Hindu idols, while BJP MP *Diya Kumari argued the land belonged to her ancestors.
With The Taj Story now visually dramatizing this contested narrative, critics say the film risks fueling one of India’s most sensitive historical disputes — reigniting the battle over whether the Taj Mahal is a symbol of Mughal legacy or a hidden Shiva shrine.