'Game of Ayodhya' to be screened at Rashtrapati Bhavan

LUCKNOW: After landing itself in controversy, the film '

Game of Ayodhya

' is set to be screened at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and the

Films Division auditorium

(FDA) in Delhi on December 30 and December 31 respectively.

As per email communication to the film makers from the chief executive officer of the

Central Board for Film Certification

(CBFC), "officials of the ministry have desired to see the film at the respective venues". The CBFC has thus asked the film makers to make necessary arrangements for the high level screening.

The program at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, that has been asked for, entails two shows of the film that was released on December 15 but has been caught amidst controversy, on from 9 am to 10 pm. Three shows of the film will be screened at FDA from 9 am to 10 pm.

"It is a big deal that the President and the ministers have decided to see the film and decide for themselves what it holds," said Game of Ayodhya director, Sunil Singh. He added, "A number of theatre owners in Muzaffarnagar, Faizabad, Shamli and other places in UP have told us that they are being pressurised into not screening the film, through the police and the entertainment tax officers, working on the orders of the district magistrate."

With the director claiming that public screening of the film is not being allowed unofficially, a private screening of it was held earlier in Lucknow on December 20, which was attended by Iqbal Ansari, son of Hashim Ansari, one of the litigants in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

Based in Ayodhya around the time of the Babri Masjid demolition, the film is said to be a love story between a Hindu and Muslim couple and how actions of the journalist protagonist affects the situation in Ayodhya of 1992. "The movie is nothing more than an endeavour of peace and harmony between Hindu and Muslims," said Singh.