December 14, 2024 23:43 (IST)
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Udta Punjab row: Bombay HC adjourns hearing till tomorrow
Mumbai, Jun 9 (IBNS): The Bombay High Court on Thursday adjourned the hearing on the film 'Udta Punjab' till Friday after the Censor Board has put a diktat on the Abhishek Choubey directed.
The High Court has allowed the producers of the film to amend its petition, which enabled them to challenge the Censor Board’s order suggesting 13 cuts in the film.
The makers of Bollywood film “Udta Punjab” were reportedly asked by the revised committee of the Censor Board to remove all references to Punjab as the film deals with the problem of drugs among the youth that many view as having been inappropriately linked to the state to show it in a bad light.
Coming down heavily on the Censor Board diktat, the film's co-producer Anurag Kashyap has been on record as saying that he feels he lives in an oligarchic country like North Korea and that Pahlaj Nihalni is an "egoistic" person.
Kashyap had insisted that the word “Punjab” cannot be separated from his film.
“It is absolutely not possible to cut references to Punjab...“The film is not anti-Akali or anti-BJP, it is anti-drugs. A film about how youth are losing lives," he had said.
Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalni had said the film's cuts have nothing to do with the state elections and that co-producer Anurag Kashyap's charges against him are "baseless."
“Only if one sees the film can one understand why the word Punjab was deleted,” he told NDTV in what came as his first reaction to the mounting criticism, especially from the film fraternity that the changes sought to be forced upon the film were taken at the behest of the ruling dispensation at the Centre.
The matter went to the revised committee after the Censor Board denied the film a certificate over “excessive swearing”.
Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit Dosanjh are the leading actors of the film that delves into how the youth have succumbed to drugs.
It caused chagrin for few political parties, especially Punjab's Shrimoni Akali Dal, which is a partner of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance as they feel the film will spell a disaster for their electoral fortune when Punjab is only nine months away from the Assembly polls.
While many film personalities have been up in arms against the Censor Board, particularly Nihalni for the act that has created an unprecedented furore, it took a political turn with the opposition Congress reacting strongly on it.
However, the film’s co-producer Anurag Kashyap asked the political parties to stay out of the controversy and said he will “fight his own battle”.
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