The film 'Sri Siddhartha Gautama', which was screened in Sri Lanka with much media fanfare, is an insult to Buddhism as well as to the life of Buddha, leading Buddhist monks have said. 

Medhagoda Abhayathissa Thera, an outspoken Buddhist monk, had said the film 'Sri Siddhartha Gautama' painted a wrong picture about the life of Buddha. 

"This film is the greatest insult to Lord Buddha I've even seen. It distorts important facts about the life of Gautama Buddha. In his lifetime, Buddha, even before he attained enlightenment, never worshiped anyone. But in this film, Siddhartha worships on twelve occasions," Abhayathissa Thera had told a vernacular newspaper. He also said that there were numerous factual errors in the film that strongly contravene Buddhist scriptures. 

"When he left behind his wife, Siddhartha never cried. One who aspires to attain enlightenment never cries. But in the film 'Siddhartha Gautama', he goes berserk before leaving palace in search of emancipation," the Thera said while adding that it was hard to believe that this movie had been produced by 'Buddhists'. 

The movie, which was screened in 2013, was produced by Navin Guneratne chairman of The Light of Asia Foundation and Jeff Goonewardena, former consul general of Sri Lanka to Los Angeles, Venezuela and Colombia as well as prominent hotelier. The main actors and actresses list of the film include Gagan Malik(India), Anchal Singh(India), Ranjan Ramanayake (Sri Lanka),  Anjani Perera(USA), Gautam Gulati(India), Roshan Ranawana (Sri Lanka), Saranga Disasekara( Sri Lanka), Dilhani Perera (USA), and Wilson Gooneratne (Sri Lanka). The film is directed by Saman Weeraman, while Chandran Rutnam worked as the main advisor to the entire production.

The film was recently telecasted on one of Sri Lanka's leading television channels.