At a press conference for his forthcoming film “TE3N” here on Wednesday, the 73-year-old actor was asked to comment on the controversy over “Udta Punjab” – a movie on the festering problem of drugs in Punjab.
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Tearing into the justification offered by the CBFC about the changes proposed by it, Justice Dharmadhikari demanded to know from the Censor Board, “Has drug menace never been portrayed on celluloid?” Censorship authorities often order filmmakers – both Indian and foreign – to chop scenes deemed offensive.
Siding with the makers of film Udta Punjab, Babbar said the film industry has nothing to do with politics and a film should be treated as a film only. The film, which is based on drug abuse in Punjab has not been issued certificate yet by Censor Board of Film Certification.
The national censor board this week said that a big-budget Bollywood film about a gritty, often-overlooked subject – the drug menace in the northern state of Punjab – painted the state in a bad light.
Until the above provisions are met with, the CBFC refuses to allow the release of the film with an “A” grade on the promised date of the 17th of June. The Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, which fancies its chances in the northern state, criticised the board.
“If Pahlaj Nihlani wants to serve BJP as its worker, he should step down from the censor board and take the membership of BJP”. This is absolute wrong reading of the film itself according to me. “But it is unfortunate that there is going to be a delay that they have to fight their way to the high court”, he said.
Making it clear that the CBFC was doing its job, the judges asked it to explain the changes sought to be made in the film, which has created a major pre-release controversy revolving around freedom of expression.
He said, after the board, there is a Appellate Tribunal for film certification and 99 percent of the films get cleared without much changes. “My best wishes to the team that it gets justice at the Tribunal”.
About the reviewing committee’s insistence to keep the state machinery and political parties out of the controversial film, the court asked, “How can you ask them to delete words like “MP”, “MLA”, “election” etc”.
Filmmaker Mukesh Bhatt, who is also the President of the Film and Television Producers Guild of India, urged the government to sack Nihalani as the head of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
Another superstar Aamir Khan also came out in support of “Udta Punjab”, saying the voice of a filmmaker should not be throttled.
“If the question is of the use of dialect and language, there is a great deal of obscenity being used (in the film)”, he said.
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The controversy surrounding the Shahid Kapoor-Alia Bhatt starrer, Udta Punjab seems to have created vast furor among the Bollywood fraternity.
