A short while ago, SpotboyE told you about Aamir Khan voicing his support for Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab (Aamir Khan: I hope Udta Punjab gets justice, move reflects badly on CBFC, 8 June).
But Aamir is not the only B-Towner to have openly condemned the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) demand for 89 cuts in the film, including all references to Punjab.
Earlier in the day, the who’s-who of Bollywood got together for a media meet to address the issue. Zoya Akhtar, Imtiaz Ali, Ashok Pandit, Mukesh & Mahesh Bhatt, Satish Kaushik and Rahul Dholakia along with the cast of the film, including Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, lashed out against the CBFC.
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Udta Punjab producer Anurag Kashyap minced no words when talking about Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani. “When he was made the CBFC head, it gave us a lot of hope. But now, har film ko Tribunal main jaa ke release hona padta hai,” he said.
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When asked if he had spoken to Pahlaj, the filmmaker gave a curt reply: “I don’t talk to him at all, I don’t want to undergo the humiliation of talking to him.”
Producer Mukesh Bhatt was also scathing in his attack. “It’s a matter of shame that a member of our own fraternity is behaving like this. We demand that Pahlaj be sacked from the post of CBFC chief. He doesn’t deserve it.”
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While Zoya Akhtar called the move ‘ridiculous’, the film’s hero, Shahid Kapoor, said, “We live in the age of information technology. This film has become the face of the fight jo kaafi saalon se chal rahi hai.”
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Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali also lent his support to Team Udta Punjab. He said, “A lot of my friends are part of this film. We don’t need a stamp of approval from anybody.”