Mike Myers in his new film The Love Guru. His lampooning of gurus has upset some Hindus. Mike Myers in his new film The Love Guru. His lampooning of gurus has upset some Hindus. (Paramount Pictures/Associated Press)

Hindu groups in India are calling for Mike Myers's film The Love Guru to be banned in India because they say it "appears to be lampooning Hinduism."

The trailers for the comedy, in which Myers plays a guru sent to solve the love problems of a Toronto Maple Leafs player, have also set off alarm bells among U.S.-based Hindus.

U.S.-based Hindus who had viewed the trailer said they thought Myers's portrayal of a spiritual guru potentially offensive and religiously insensitive.

In India, the fear is that the film would "hurt the feelings of the worldwide spiritual and Hindu community," according to Hindu organization Janjagruti Samiti and Sanatan Society for Scientific Spirituality of Bombay.

Some Hindu groups have said they will make a request to India's Central Board of Film Certification and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to keep the film out of India.

However, the film certification board says it has not yet received a complaint about the film.

There has been little love for Guru in Britain, too. The British Film Institute has assured Hindu groups there that it will not screen the film.

That just keeps The Love Guru out of the institute, not out of Britain.

Myers, the Canadian-born comedian who created Wayne's World and Austin Powers, plays an American man raised in India by gurus and trying to break into the self-help business in the U.S.

Directed by Marco Schnabel, the film also stars Ben Kingsley, Jessica Alba and Justin Timberlake.

The comedy also appears to lampoon hockey players and Canadians.

It is scheduled for release June 20 in North America.