‘Stop making us the soft target’

A day after Bombay High Court rejected all but one of the cuts suggested by CBFC in Udta Punjab, the film team comes together to thank its supporters and look ahead.

Director Abhishek Chaubey with actors Alia Bhatt, Shahid Kapoor and Diljit Dosanjh Kevin D’souza.

Stop judging films and characters from a promo. It is a two-hour-and-20-minute film and, if you believe, that there is any credibility in the people who are seated here, have the discretion before passing any judgement or creating a controversy. This has been happening with this film so far — all the controversies around it have cropped up even before it has been viewed,” said Shahid Kapoor, one of Udta Punjab’s actors. He was referring to the criticism that his co-actor Alia Bhatt faced for “not sounding like a Bihari immigrant” when the movie’s promo released. Moments later, Bhatt returned the favour when she said that Shahid had pushed himself “far ahead” in the role of Tommy Singh, a rockstar with a drug habit.

Udta Punjab is a story of four lives that are affected by the problem of drugs. At a press conference held in Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon, a day after the Bombay High Court rejected all but one of the cuts suggested by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the Udta Punjab team came together to thank those who supported the film. It was also the time to announce that they would be spending some more sleepless nights to meet the deadline of reaching the theatres on June 17.

With the court asking the CBFC to certify movies and not try to censor them, the question of revamping the Cinematograph Act, 1952 was raised more than once. Director-producer Anurag Kashyap, one of the four partners at Phantom Films, who has been vociferous in his protest against the unreasonable stand taken by the CBFC said that the campaign for the Act’s “overhauling” had started for a while ago. With the film industry joining the Udta team in their fight against CBFC, it has gained momentum. “Under the same guidelines, we had released Gangs of Wasseypur and Dev.D. Earlier, I had faced problems over my film Black Friday too. We used to be given a reason for their objections and it was a fair ground to fight. In this case, we kept hearing from others that the film has been banned and multiple cuts suggested. We did not have the letter of recommended cuts from the CBFC (till we moved the court) to fight against it,” said Kashyap. He sounded hopeful that “the obsolete Act” would be amended soon and requested that “filmmakers should not be made soft targets”.

Ekta Kapoor, another producer of the film, said that the film will be released on over 2,000 screens. With this verdict, however, the filmmakers believe there is a responsibility imposed on them. “Now that we have the freedom to make and say what we wish to express, we have to be more responsible and still enjoy doing what we do,” said Vikas Bahl, another partner at Phantom Films.

Meanwhile, at least three other films are caught in CBFC hurdle. They are Salagto Sawaal Anamat (Burning Question of Reservation). The CBFC has reportedly suggested 100 cuts to this Gujarati film that talks about the agitation over quota in Gujarat. The board had also asked the makers of Shorgul, a political drama, to mute the words “Godhra” and “gau ganga” because they feared it would create communal unrest. The Examining Committee of the CBFC reportedly declined to pass the awarding-winning film Haraamkhor last week, objecting to its theme of showing a teacher having an affair with a minor girl.

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