Madhur Bhandarkar APPALLED As CBFC Suggests 14 Cuts For Indu Sarkar

Indu Sarkar director Madhur Bhandarkar is in a state of shock. Reason? The Central Board Of Film Certification has suggested 12 cuts and 2 disclaimers for the film set against the Emergency.

Post the meeting with the Board members yesterday Madhur took to Twitter to express his outrage at the result in a series of tweets. One tweet read, “Just got out of #InduSarkar film censor screening.Am appalled at the 14 cuts suggested by the committee.Will go to the revising committee (sic).”

Another one said, “How can d dialogues in d trailer b deleted frm d film? Am i missing some logic or r difrnt yardsticks being used during censor?#InduSarkar (sic).”

Taking about the absurdity of it all, Madhur spoke to Mumbai Mirror and said, “It’s absurd that names of political leaders like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Morarji Desai and Lal Krishna Advani that appear in a newspaper that someone is reading doesn’t pass muster, nor does that of Jayaprakash Narayan even when it’s just part of a slogan being shouted. Nor for that matter do references to political terms like ‘Akali’, ‘Communist’ and the organisation RSS. It’s really disappointing. But what’s really mind-boggling is that even Kishore Kumar’s name (the singer’s songs were banned on All India Radio on Doordarshan because the he refused to perform at a Congress rally in Mumbai at the time) needs to be dropped!”

He added that post the trailer release, he consulted friends from political parties and carried out voluntary changes before submitting the print to Censors.

What’s taken him by surprise is that lines like “Ab iss desh mein Gandhi ke maayne badal chuke hain” and “Bharat ki ek beti ne desh ko bandi banaya hua hai” which have been playing in the trailer on television, the social media and in the theatres since June 16, now appear in the list of lines to be deleted before the film can be released. Also, words like ‘IB’, ‘Section Officer’ and even ‘PM’ have been blacklisted. “What parameters are they following? What yardstick?” raged the disbelieving filmmaker.

Indu Sarkar has been in the eye of the storm for a while now. Last month, Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia (late Madhavrao Scindia's son)  has expressed strong reservations against the film, saying Indu Sarkar is a propoganda film for the ruling party, BJP.

Then, reports of Congress Chief Sanjay Nirupam demanding a viewing of Indu Sarkar before it is certified came forth. 

Following that Youth Congress leader, Haseeb Ahmad took to Twitter to announce a prize of Rs 1 lakh for the person who blackens Madhur Bhandarkar’s face.

Asserting that ‘freedom of expression’ is his Constitutional right, he promises to fight this “arbitrary” censor diktat without relenting. “I will go to the Revising Committee and then the Tribunal. I’m deeply disappointed,” Bhandarkar concluded.