CHENNAI, India (RNS) Catholic leaders in India have demanded a ban on the upcoming film, “Angels and Demons,” saying the Dan Brown novel on which it’s based insults Christians and portrays fiction as fact.

The movie, starring Tom Hanks and directed by Ron Howard, is scheduled to hit theaters on May 15. It was unclear whether any of the critics had actually seen the new film.

The protests follow similar complaints over Howard’s 2006 film, “The Da Vinci Code,” which was also based on a best-selling novel by Brown. Those complaints led India’s film licensing authority to include a disclaimer that the film’s contents were fiction, not history.

The new film is the “cheapest mode of commercialization and does not speak any truth,” said the Rev. Babu Joseph, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, which has sent a letter to the Central Board of Film Certification requesting a ban. The letter added that presenting Christianity “in a distorted manner is an insult.”

Joseph said the church would insist on a fact/fiction disclaimer in the movie if the government would not agree to an outright ban.

The Mumbai-based Catholic Secular Forum has launched a petition against the film with plans to submit the signatures to government authorities, the United Nations and international human rights organizations.

“The entire story line and tone are based on misrepresentation of faith and the truth,” the group said. “No religion would tolerate its faith or clergy mocked, ridiculed or trivialized” in a similar fashion, it added.

The group has also filed a complaint with the Mumbai Police commissioner, urging action against officials of Sony Pictures on various counts.

Howard, writing recently in The Huffington Post, said, “Let me be clear: neither I nor `Angels & Demons’ are anti-Catholic. And let me be a little controversial: I believe Catholics … will enjoy the movie for what it is: an exciting mystery, set in the awe-inspiring beauty of Rome.”