# Mohanlal’s Athimanoharam denied permission to shoot at Sabarimala 2026-08-17T10:37:47+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets The Kerala Forest Department on Monday denied permission to shoot the Mohanlal-starrer Athimanoharam at the Sabarimala Temple premises, citing a recent Kerala High Court order. The area falls under the Periyar Tiger Reserve, making forest department approval mandatory. Shooting is permitted only up to Pamba under the Ranni Forest Department Division. The Kerala High Court disposed of a petition by director Tarun Moorthy seeking permission, declining to interfere with the Ranni DFO's order. The deputy director of the Periyar Tiger Reserve told the court that judicial and government orders prohibit shooting commercial movies within wildlife sanctuaries, national parks, or tiger reserves. However, the Divisional Forest Officer said shooting can be permitted at specific locations from August 18 to 28 subject to fees and agreement. Earlier, the Devaswom Board had permitted the shoot subject to script submission, a Rs 50,000 deposit, and forest clearance. Kerala Devaswom Minister K Muraleedharan said shooting is not generally allowed at Sabarimala except for devotional films related to Lord Ayyappa. Nearly 80 per cent of the film's shooting is complete, and it is set for release on December 24. ## Coverage - thefederal.com - hindustantimes.com This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-17T21:30:42+00:00. Tags: Devaswom Board, Kerala forest department, Kerala High Court, Mohanlal, Periyar Tiger Reserve, Sabarimala Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/forest-dept-denies-mohanlal-film-athimanoharam-permission-to-shoot-at-sabarimala/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/forest-dept-denies-mohanlal-film-athimanoharam-permission-to-shoot-at-sabarimala/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/