NEW DELHI: The war of words between Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani and 'Udta Punjab' co-producer Anurag Kashyap escalated on Wednesday with Nihalani alleging that Kashyap had taken money from AAP to show Punjab in a bad light and the producer denying the charges as a bunch of untruths.
"I've heard Anurag Kashyap has taken money from AAP to show Punjab in bad light," Nihalani claimed, adding that his decisions were based on rules and guidelines. Kashyap responded, saying, "I have made more films without fees than anyone else and I don't take money that is not earned from anyone... It is unfortunate that we have to justify our honesty, our credibility.'
Kashyap said his current run-in with the censor was different from earlier differences. "All those battles we knew who and what the enemy was, be it a person, a thought or just the understanding of the board. This one is different. This was blackmail, this has been a wall of lies,' he said.
Nihalani denied any political influence in the functioning of the Censor Board, saying, "The Centre never interferes." But he said, "Yes, I am a chamcha of Narendra Modi as Anurag Kashyap said. I am proud to be a Modi chamcha. Should I be a chamcha of the Italian PM instead?'
CBFC: Remove reference to a dog named Jackie ChanKashyap described his protest against cuts to his film as a "haq ki ladaai' or fight for rights. He says that what he is confronting is a systematic way of telling filmmakers not to make certain kind of cinema. The filmmaker found the support of a host of film personalities who said the issue was one of freedom of expression and creative expression.
The film that seeks to depict the drug menace in Punjab has been subjected to 13 cuts, which include deleting references to Punjab or any of its cities in the foreground, or in a signboard and in dialogues. Besides recommendations to remove expletives and cuss words, the CBFC has asked for references to election, MP, MLA, Punjab polls to be removed as well as "party" from party worker.
Some more suggestions included removing reference to a dog named Jackie Chan and deleting the dialogue "zameen banjar, aulaad kanjar". When asked about the freedom of speech Nihalani said, "Freedom of speech must also have its limitations. If they don't agree with the cuts they can appeal to the tribunal."
Nihalani also denied that he had worked under political pressure to omit certain references.
Kashyap had on Tuesday compared Nihalani to an "oligarch" and India to "North Korea" prompting I&B minister of state Rajyavardhan Rathore to say that CBFC's decisions were sometimes liked by the movie makers and sometimes not. "Therefore, as per the process, there is a system of appeal as per which after an examining committee, the filmmaker can approach the revising committee. As per the process, the filmmaker may approach the revising panel a second time as well," he said.
On Wednesday, the filmmaker who is co-producer for the movie received support from Bollywood stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan, Aamir Khan, Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali, Karan Johar, Farhan Akhtar, Satish Kaushik and others.
In a blog Kashyap spoke about his previous run ins with the CBFC. "But in all the battles, I never felt that I was being silenced or blackmailed into doing something against my will. All those battles were a fair fight of belief systems, all those fights were not being lost , not knowing what's going on."