'Udaipur Files' based on Kanhaiya Lal murder case, cleared with 150 cuts, is CBFC going too far?

Mumbai, July 9 (IANS) The release of the upcoming film ‘Udaipur Files’ has been cleared by the Supreme Court after it refused to grant an early hearing to a plea seeking a stay on the release of the film.

The film is based on the murder of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Kumar. However, the Central Board of Film Certification has ordered 150 cuts in the film, adding it to the long list of films that have been subjected to censorship.

Kanhaiya Kumar was killed for allegedly sharing a social media post in support of Indian politician and Bharatiya Janata Party spokesperson Nupur Sharma, whose comments led to the 2022 Muhammad remarks controversy.

Javed, who is one of the accused in the Kanhaiya Lal murder case, had moved the Supreme Court against the release of the film. The matter came up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia.

It was argued on behalf of the lawyer that the film is being released on July 11. Only the police are shown in the film. This will affect the test results. Justice Dhuliyan refused to intervene and said that you place the matter before the concerned bench. Let the film release.

While the board has been in controversies over the past decade for heavy censorship starting with the stint of Pahlaj Nihalani, it has tightened its grip on how films are projected to the audience in the past few years.

Films like ‘Punjab 95’ starring Diljit Dosanjh are still in the cans waiting to see the light of the day. ‘Phule’, which starred Pratik Gandhi and Patralekha in the role of social reformers, was subjected to removal of certain terms from the runtime of the movie.

CBFC has requested more than 120 cuts from the makers of ‘Punjab 95’. The film is based on the life of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, and documents one of the darkest chapters in the Indian state of Punjab. Jaswant Singh Khalra was the director of a bank in the city of Amritsar in Punjab during the militancy period in Punjab. Following Operation Blue Star, the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and the 1984 Anti-Sikh Riots, the police were empowered to detain suspects for any reason, ostensibly as suspected terrorists.

The Punjab police was accused of killing unarmed suspects in staged shootouts and burning thousands of dead bodies to cover up the murders. Khalra was investigating four major cases at one time and continued to collect evidence and witnesses.

As for ‘Phule’, which is based on social reformers Jyotirao Govindrao Phule and his wife, Savitribai Phule, the film faced delays and censorship issues with the CBFC. The CBFC requested the removal of certain caste-related terms and scenes before granting a censor certificate and allowing the film's release. The film's director, Ananth Mahadevan, clarified that the CBFC suggested "amendments" rather than "cuts".

Anurag Kashyap's 'Kennedy' too, which garnered a lot of accolades at International Film Festivals like Cannes, has been waiting for its release since over a year now. Anurag is well acquainted with the arduous process of the release of his films considering his cult-classic 'Black Friday' was released after 2 years given the intervention of the Apex court and his debut 'Paanch' still not getting a release after more than 20 years.

In fact, the recently released Aamir Khan-starrer ‘Sitaare Zameen Par’ was also subjected to modifications.

A watershed moment in the growing intervention of CBFC in the film industry came almost a decade ago with 'Udta Punjab' during the reign of Pahlaj Nihalani. The makers of the film had approached Film Certification Appellate Tribunal to sort the terms of its release.

With ‘Udaipur Files’ reportedly being subjected to 150 cuts, the dependency of the Indian entertainment industry on the mercy of CBFC furthers its course.

--IANS

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