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Catholic forum forces Discovery to cancel plans to air documentary on ‘Tomb Of Jesus’ in India
MUMBAI: Looks like Catholics in India are more than a little touchy when it comes to Jesus on film and television. Earlier this year, they had opposed the movie The Da Vinci Code. The film was eventually released with a note before and after the film that it was a work of fiction.
Now the Mumbai-based Catholic Secular Forum (CSF) has forced Discovery to cancel plans to air the documentary The Lost Tomb Of Jesus. As has already been reported by Indiantelevision.com, the programme claims to show that scientific analysis of limestone ossuaries (bone boxes) and physical evidence found in a 2,000-year-old tomb in Talpiot, Jerusalem, provide credible new information that the tomb once may have held the remains of Jesus of Nazareth and his family.
James Cameron served as executive producer on the show. It has been directed by Simcha Jacobovici. The documentary, which will have its global television premier tomorrow (4 March), claims to present the latest evidence from experts in Aramaic script, ancient DNA analysis, forensics, archaeology and statistics
In India, the CSF had written to Discovery in New Delhi requesting it to refrain from broadcasting the feature. CSF argued that the show trivialises the credibility of the Bible and the Christian faith.
CSF secretary Joseph Dias was quoted in reports as stating that the show hurt religious sentiments in a pluralistic society and was an attempt to commercialise religion for selfish profit and commercial gains or cheap publicity.
With references to Jesus as a human being with a family; mentions of Judah as the secret offspring of Jesus through Mary Magdalene; a portrayal of Mathew, one of the writers of the Gospels, as a maternal relative of Jesus and a mention of the burial of Jesus’ siblings in the same tomb, the CSF says the documentary attacks the basic tenets of Christianity.
While cancelling plans to telecast it in India, Discovery “expressed regret that the channel had inadvertently hurt religious sentiments of the Christian community”. the CSF had threatened an agitation on the day of telecast and legal action if the channel went ahead with the telecast.
The CSF even sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other ministers, including information and broadcasting minister Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, demanding that the telecast be scrapped.
CSF is also looking to prevent the release of the book and DVD in the country.
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TOISA 2026 shortlists unveiled ahead of Lucknow ceremony
Eighth edition on March 21 honours standout performers from 2025.
MUMBAI: TOISA 2026 just dropped a shortlist so stacked, even the trophy is wondering if it needs a bigger shelf. The Times of India Sports Awards (TOISA) has revealed its 2026 shortlists, setting the stage for the eighth edition on 21 March at The Centrum Hotel in Lucknow. Celebrating achievements from 1 January to 31 December 2025 across more than 45 sports categories, this year’s nominees capture a golden 12 months of Indian sport from ODI and T20 World Cup triumphs to double golds at the Asian Athletics Championships and podium finishes at the World Para Athletics Championships.
For the first time, TOISA opens its doors to the public. Passes are available at timesofindia.indiatimes.com/toisa2025.
Standout shortlists include:
- Badminton (Male): Lakshya Sen, Ayush Shetty, Kiran George, Chirag Shetty, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy
- Badminton (Female): Tanvi Sharma, Unnati Hooda, Tressa Jolly, Gayatri Gopichand
- Cricket (Male): Shubman Gill, Abhishek Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja, Varun Chakaravarthy, KL Rahul, Kuldeep Yadav
- Cricket (Female): Smriti Mandhana, Pratika Rawal, Jemimah Rodrigues, Deepti Sharma, Shafali Verma
- Athletics (Male): Neeraj Chopra, Animesh Kujur, Gulveer Singh, Sachin Yadav
- Athletics (Female): Parul Chaudhary, Rupal Chaudhary, Jyothi Yarraji, Pooja Singh
- Shooting (Female): Suruchi Inder Singh, Simranpreet Kaur, Esha Singh, Elavenil Valarivan, Sift Kaur Samra, Manu Bhaker
- Emerging Sportsperson: Tanvi Sharma (badminton), Divya Deshmukh (chess), Shree Charani (cricket), Vaibhav Suryavanshi (cricket)
- Team of the Year: India Women’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Cricket Team, India Men’s Hockey Team, India Men’s & Women’s Kabaddi Teams, India National Shooting Team, India Women’s Cricket Team for the Blind, India Squash Team, India Women’s Ice Hockey Team
| Category | Shortlist 1 | Shortlist 2 | Shortlist 3 | Shortlist 4 | Shortlist 5 | Shortlist 6 | Column 1 | Column 2 |
| Badminton male | Lakshya Sen | Ayush Shetty | Kiran George | Chirag Shetty | Satwiksairaj Rankireddy | |||
| Badminton female | Tanvi Sharma | Unnati Hooda | Tressa Jolly | Gayatri Gopichand | ||||
| Cricket male | Shubman Gill | Abhishek Sharma | Ravindra Jadeja | Varun Chakaravarthy | KL Rahul | Kuldeep Yadav | ||
| Cricket female | Smriti Mandhana | Pratika Rawal | Jemimah Rodrigues | Deepti Sharma | Shafali Verma | |||
| Athletics (Track and field) male | Neeraj Chopra | Animesh Kujur | Gulveer Singh | Sachin Yadav | ||||
| Athletics (Track and field) female | Parul Chaudhary | Rupal Chaudhary | Jyothi Yarraji | Pooja Singh | ||||
| Sportsperson of the year (combined of all sports) | Divya Deshmukh | Suruchi Inder Singh | Smriti Mandhana | Samrat Rana | ||||
| Equestrian | Ashish Limaye | Shruti Vora | Divyakriti Singh | |||||
| Hockey male | Abhishek Nain | Harmanpreet Singh | Jugraj Singh | Amit Rohidas | ||||
| Hockey female | Udita Duhan | Navneet Kaur | Mumtaz Khan | Rutuja Pisal | ||||
| Shooting male | Samrat Rana | Ravinder Singh | Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar | Anish | Varun Tomar | Rudrankksh Patil | ||
| Shooting female | Suruchi Inder Singh | Simranpreet Kaur | Esha Singh | Elavenil Valarivan | Sift Kaur Samra | Manu Bhaker | ||
| Emerging sportsperson (combined) | Tanvi Sharma (badminton) | Divya Deshmukh (chess) | Shree Charani (cricket) | Vaibhav Suryavanshi (cricket) | ||||
| Coach of the year (male, female combined) | Amol Majumdar (Cricket) | Suresh Singh (Shooting) | Ashok Kumar Rana (Shooting) | |||||
| Chess male | Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa | Aravindh Chithambaram | Panneerselvam Iniyan | Nihal Sarin | Arjun Erigaisi | |||
| Chess female | Divya Deshmukh | Koneru Humpy | Vaishali Rameshbabu | Nandhidhaa PV | ||||
| Archery male | Dhiraj Bommadevara | Abhishek Verma | Atanu Das | Prathamesh Fuge | Rishabh Yadav | |||
| Archery female | Ankita Bhakat | Jyothi Surekha | Deepika Kumari | Prithika Pradeep | ||||
| Billiards/Snooker | Pankaj Advani | Aditya Mehta | Brijesh Damani | |||||
| Weightlifting male | Rishikanta Singh | Muthupandi Raja | Dilbag Singh | Lovepreet Singh | ||||
| Weightlifting female | Mirabai Chanu | Mehak Sharma | Bindyarani Devi | |||||
| Wrestling male | Sunil Kumar | Nitesh | Aman Sehrawat | Sujeet Kalkal | ||||
| Wrestling female | Antim Panghal | Manisha | Nisha Dahiya | |||||
| Squash male | Abhay Singh | Saurav Ghosal | Velavan Senthilkumar | Mahesh Mangaonkar | ||||
| Squash female | Anahat Singh | Joshna Chinappa | Dipika Pallikal Karthik | Tanvi Khanna | ||||
| Table Tennis male | Manav Thakkar | Sathiyan Gnanasekaran | Harmeet Desai | Payas Jain | ||||
| Table Tennis female | Manika Batra | Sreeja Akula | Diya Chitale | Ayhika Mukherjee | ||||
| Team of the Year (combined from all sports) | India Women’s Cricket Team | India Men’s Cricket Team | India Men’s Hockey Team | India Men’s & Women’s Kabaddi Teams | India National Shooting Team | India Women’s Cricket Team for the Blind | India Squash Team | India Women’s Ice Hockey Team |
| Tennis Male | Rohan Bopanna | Yuki Bhambri | Sumit Nagal | |||||
| Tennis Female | Ankita Raina | Vaishnavi Adkar | Sahaja Yamalapalli | |||||
| Football male | Subhasish Bose | Sunil Chhetri | Vishal Kaith | Brison Fernandes | Gurpreet Singh Sandhu | |||
| Football female | Soumya Guguloth | Grace Dangmei | Elangbam Panthoi Chanu | Manisha Kalyan | Pyari Xaxa | |||
| Kabaddi | Sanju Devi | Pawan Sehrawat | Ritu Negi | Arjun Deshwal | ||||
| Boxing male | Sachin Siwach | Hitesh Gulia | Pawan Bartwal | Ankush Panghal | ||||
| Boxing female | Minakshi Hooda | Jaismine Lamboria | Nikhat Zareen | Pooja Rani | ||||
| Sailing | Vishnu Saravanan | Zahaan Hemrajani | Abhimanyu Panwar | Ghashiayah A | ||||
| Para Archery male | Harvinder Singh | Vivek Chikara | Rakesh Kumar | Shyam Sunder Swami | ||||
| Para Archery female | Sheetal Devi | Payal Nag | Jyoti Baliyan | |||||
| Para Athlete (Track & Field) male | Sumit Antil | Shailesh Kumar | Sandeep Kumar | Nishad Kumar | ||||
| Para Athlete (Track & Field) female | Simran Sharma | Preethi Pal | Ekta Bhyan | Deepthi Jeevanji | ||||
| Para Badminton male | Pramod Bhagat | Sukant Kadam | Krishna Nagar | |||||
| Para badminton female | Mandeep Kaur | Manasi Joshi | Nithya Sre | |||||
| Para chess | Vaibhav Gautam | Samarth J Rao | Venkata Krishna Karthik K | |||||
| Para judo | Kapil Parmar | Avidha Sharma | Rahul Rajora | Kokila | ||||
| Para shooting male | Bhat Amir Ahmad | Nihal Singh | Sandeep Kumar | Rudransh Khandelwal | ||||
| Para shooting female | Mona Agarwal | Avani Lekhara | Rubi Kumari | |||||
| Para Sportsperson of the year | Sheetal Devi (Para Archery) | Praveen Kumar (Para Athletics – High Jump) | Preethi Pal (Para Athletics – Sprint) | Sumit Antil (Para Athletics – Javelin) | ||||
| Para Coach of the year | Dr. Satyapal Singh (Para Athletics) | Subhash Rana (Para Shooting) | Gaurav Khanna (Para Badminton) | Sandhya Bharti (Para Taekwondo) |
The jury comprises six of India’s most decorated athletes, Leander Paes, Mithali Raj, Abhinav Bindra, Devendra Jhajharia, Sharath Kamal and PR Sreejesh.
TOISA remains the one night on the Indian sporting calendar judged purely on merit, not popularity. This year’s edition in Lucknow, a state that has steadily become a powerhouse of grassroots talent reflects how excellence now runs deep across every region.
In a year when Indian sport refused to stay in one lane, TOISA isn’t just handing out trophies, it’s framing a portrait of a nation that’s finally sprinting, swinging and shooting its way onto the world stage, one unforgettable moment at a time.
