Veteran Film Director Shyam Benegal has finally opened his views for upcoming release ‘Udta Punjab’. The film which deals with the grave issue of drugs is still hanging like a pendulum between Censor Board and Filmmakers. At latest, Shyam Benegal has cleared his mind and given his full support for the Shahid Kapoor starrer movie ‘Udta Punjab’
Shyam Benegal is one of the pioneer directors of parallel cinema in India and went on to direct award winning cult films like ‘Ankur’, ‘Nishant’, ‘Manthan’, ‘Bhumika’, ‘Zubeidaa’ and ‘Well Done Abba’. He is currently assigned an important work by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to come up with a suggestions of revamping Censor Board Model. Though he had already prepared his structure model for the Censor Board and send it to the ministry but it still didn’t got approved by them.
Anyways, a special screening has been held for Shyam Benegal on June 8, who clearly states that the film is not at all an anti-Punjab and needs to be lauded for its efforts. He lately said to a leading agency that , “It’s a well-made film. It brings to attention a very serious problem, that of drug use among young people, which can, if we are not careful, become a rampant problem. It’s a laudable effort. But people are misreading the film. They are under the impression that it is anti-Punjab. I don’t think the film is anti-Punjab at all.”
The CBFC has demanded as many as 94 cuts from the movie and which really created a lot of ruckus among the filmmakers. At lately, ‘Udta Punjab’ makers have approached to High Court to seek the justice in the matter. High Court has now shifted the hearing for June 16 in this case which is just a day before the release day. The excessive cuss words used in the film has been one of the big reasons for so many cuts. It is even believed that the assembly election is about to happen in Punjab in the next year and this film can hamper the image of ruling Akali Dal-BJP coalition.
Even Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani pointed out that co-producer Anurag Kashyap had taken money from the Aam Aadmi Party to make ‘Udta Punjab’. So everything is happening around the movie ‘Udta Punjab’ now which is not a good sign for the makers.
Altogether, the film is stuck between Censor Board and Politics and future of the film release is still unclear. Directed by Abhishek Chaubey, the film stars Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Diljit Dosanjh and Kareena Kapoor in the lead roles. The film has a release date of June 17.
