The HC, while agreeing with the suggestion of the CBFC for chopping this scene in the drugthemed film, disapproved of it asking for deletion of references to “Punjab”.
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Mumbai: Eminent filmmaker Shyam Benegal, who heads the government-appointed censor board revamp committee and for whom a special screening of controversy-ridden Udta Punjab was organised on Wednesday, termed the film as “technically” well-made. The film has been suffering on a bad note between the politics and censorship battle. In stinging observations against the Board, the court noted, “If the movie (Udta Punjab) is glorifying use of drugs then ban the entire movie”.
Film certification norms will have to be liberal and “some very radical changes” will be announced over the next few days, Information and Broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley has said. The arguments in the case have concluded and the order will be passed on June 13. “Many movies are failing in multiplexes because the audiences are bored with this overdose”, the court observed. It shows that the film deals with the drug problem in Punjab.
Nihalani is under severe criticism of film personalities for the 89 cuts he has ordered in “Udta Punjab”. The film will hit the screens on 17th June, 2016.
“The Censor Board need not be overtly critical because we want creative people to survive and grow in the film industry”. “We are objecting to the reference of Punjab and its people and the language used in the film”, the lawyer argued.
On the contrary, the court said that by passing such an order, the CBFC was giving the film undue weightage and publicity.
To this, the court pointed out that films do not run on such content and there must be a storyline and the modern audiences were mature enough. The Board also said that there is a dog which has been named as Jackie Chan, which is also objectionable. The experts said that mentioning that “70% youth in Punjab is indulged in drugs” in the movie was misleading.
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Co-produced by Anurag Kashyap, “Udta Punjab” stars Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh and is about the drug menace in Punjab.
