Official Thread ♛★★♛ Udta PUNJAB ♛★★♛ Shahid Kapoor - Alia Bhatt - Kareena Kapoor Movie

Since the day CBFC has told 'Udta Punjab' team to remove 'Punjab' from its title, Twitter is innundated with hatred tweets towards Pahlaj Nihalani. Now, the CBFC chief Mr Nihalani speaks to Subhash K Jha, exclusively for HT and gives his side of opinion on the whole fiasco!

Here's what he told about Anurag Kashyap:

"I haven't met him (Anurag Kashyap, the film's co-producer)) even once about Udta Punjab. We've never spoken on this matter. In the past when a film produced by him -NH 10- was in censor trouble, I did my best to help him follow the censor guidelines."



"When there was objection to his title Bombay Velvet, we at the CBFC passed the title to ensure Mr Kashyap's creative urges do not get suppressed. Now when he is not getting his way with the CBFC, I'm the biggest villain in the creative world. So be it."

"Mr Kashyap is like a child being denied a toy. He loves to make a noise every time a film directed or produced by him is released. And since he makes a lot of movies, he also makes a lot of noise. I believe he has called me an extremely egotistical man. A lot of people feel the same about him. "

HT also mentioned in the interview that Kashyap feels that he(Nihalani) runs the CBFC like his personal fiefdom. Here's how Mr Nihalani reacted:

"Says who? Ashoke Pandit (censor board member opposing the cuts))? The man who Kashyap hails as a sensible voice in the CBFC just because Pandit is opposing the CBFC's decision to not allow Punjab to be vilified in Udta Punjab."

"It's like that filmmaker who thinks the only critic who understands his film is the one who praises the film."

 

Amitabh Bachchan has supported the team of Udta Punjab and said that the Censor Board should not try to kill the creativity.

During the promotions of his film Te3n, Amitabh Bachchan told a daily, "Don't try to kill creativity. I think we all must have freedom to create because we are in this creative field. All we have [is] our soul to be able to create. When you kill creativity, you kill our soul and that will be detrimental to the profession.''

 

Yesterday (June 8 ,2016) Film Producers' Guild of India president Mukesh Bhatt appealed to the Information and Broadcasting Ministry to remove Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani as, he said, Nihlani can 'only do harm to the industry'.


"This is a manipulative game; a corrupt system is prevailing in our CBFC which I have to say with a lot of shame. And if despite knowing that, Pahlaj Nihalani still sits on the chair, it is a matter of shame for him as well as for us. I appeal to the ministry that he should be removed immediately."

 

Over the past few years, Bollywood filmmakers have been venting out their ire on the censor panel for acting strict with unjust rules and not clearing their films, giving them a hard time before their films’ releases. The Bollywood-Censor board war aggravated recently when the censor chief Pahlaj Nihlani refused to clear the upcoming Hindi film, Udta Punjab.

Joining the long list of filmmakers who expressed their dissent on the existing censor system, director Rajamouli, who was in Delhi yesterday to receive the CNN-News 18 ‘Indian of the Year: Entertainment 2015’ award, said that his sympathies lie with these struggling filmmakers as he is a filmmaker himself.

“The simple logic is how can 6, 7 or 10 members decide what is good or not good for the entire nation. Being a family head, I should decide what is good for me, my family or my kids to watch, not someone else,” said Rajamouli.

 

Gone are the days when the audience would be crazy about the leading actors prancing around behind the trees. This is not to say that rom-com has lost their market, but the audience is looking out more for the realistic movies. Perhaps, that is the prime reason, why there has been such a hue and cry about the ban on Udta Punjab. The media has off late been abuzz about the shaming of Udta Punjab by the Censor Board. The ruckus went up to the level of a strange bottleneck when the censor board suggested around 90 cuts in the film, along with all references of Punjab be removed, something with team Udta Punjab could never agree with, and went on to the Bombay High Court for redressal.

Udta is in the midst of a raging controversy owing to its content, the drug abuse issue in Punjab. Justice SC Dharmadhikari was taken aback about CBFC labeling the film anti-Punjab. He questioned the Censor Board, “Has drug menace never been portrayed on celluloid? Some may be crude while some may be artistic. How does this signboard insult anyone?”

He further elucidated that the film’s sole purpose was not to shame the state, but to point out the seriousness of the issue. He also mentioned that previously many such films have got the censor clearance which had the names of states mentioned in them.

Particularly mentioning ‘Go Goa Gone’ , Justice Dharmadhikari wondered that if the mention in the film title was to portray a state in bad light, then CFBC should have made a row over the film long back. If the censor board was okay with Goa mentioned in the film’s title, then there shouldn’t be any problem as such with Udta Punjab having Punjab mentioned in it.

With state elections due in Punjab next year, the opposition has already made drug abuse a burning issue for campaigning. The Censor Board chief Pahalaj Nilahani, however, has denied allegations that he has acted under political pressure and the censor board’s instructions weren’t arbitrary.

With the likes of Shyam Benegal and other CBFC members like Ashoke Pandit and Chandramukh Sharma coming out with a positive response regarding Udta Punjab, Kashyap seems to be getting the right support from the right people.