Udta Punjab: Best thing Pahlaj Nihalani has done is to unite Bollywood
Pahlaj Nihalani, the Censor Board of Film Certification chief, has actually achieved the unprecedented. In his bid to clip the wings of the Anurag Kashyap-produced and Abhishek Chaubey-directed Udta Punjab, the film on the northern state's drug menace, he has managed to unite the Bollywood veterans with the fiercely experimenting newbies.
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| Press conference in defence of Udta Punjab. [Screen grab from India Today] |
In a heavily-attended press conference, Bollywood put up a proud united front, a band of brothers and sisters, comrades and colleagues, in order to resist the dictatorial Nihalani's latest onslaught against good sense and good cinema. Faces like those of Mahesh Bhatt, Mukesh Bhatt, Sudhir Mishra, Satish Kaushik, Imitaz Ali, Zoya Akhtar, Ekta Kapoor, Rahul Dholakia were seen along with Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, as well as Abhishek Chaubey and Anurag Kashyap.
I feel ashamed in even defending myself on such an allegation(taking money from AAP): Anurag Kashyap #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/mieWtdGEPI
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
There are four stages,we have just crossed the 2nd one; going to the third now. Lets see: Anurag Kashyap #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/KdNa638T4d
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
I appeal to the Ministry to remove Pahlaj Nihalani, he doesn't deserve to be the CBFC chief: Mukesh Bhatt pic.twitter.com/ammGTSXlGy
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
Normally film industry offers silent support,for first time we all have come out openly on a issue:Satish Kaushik pic.twitter.com/TCPZzwCBVy
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
Demand that Pahlaj Nihalani apologize for this statement(Anurag Kashyap taking money from AAP),insult to entire film industry: Ashok Pandit
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
They spoke in one voice, which said enough is enough.
It was heartening to watch Bollywood grow up in so many ways, if only to put up a brave front against this top-down infantilisation of our minds. Even Ashoke Pandit, an ardent BJP supporter, was forced to side with the filmmakers and actors, as Nihalani made the explosive and as yet unsubstantiated allegation that Kashyap was bribed by Aam Aadmi Party to show Punjab, currently under BJP-Akali Dal regime, in a poor light.
We all need to support the message this film is sending: Shahid Kapoor #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/KKgNS8jW6j
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
Films we make are based on what happens in society, we don't imagine or create: Rahul Dholakia, Director pic.twitter.com/iwztxZVIoe
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
We can't turn into a Saudi Arabia where there is opulence but no free thought in society: Mahesh Bhatt #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/yDxXqu1jxL
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
No place for censorship or scissors, rather than censoring we should rate the film :Rakyesh O Mehra #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/kkSW7wfyDi
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
I never said #UdtaPunjab shouldn't release in Punjab. Anurag Kashyap is trying to take mileage and has done it before too: Pahlaj Nihalani
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
That Nihalani, whose firm grip on the aesthetics of cinema, is limited to Modi Chacha and Mera Desh Mahan, would go chop-chop on a film dripping with cinematographic excellence and grit to uncensor the brutal reality is hardly surprising. Though it is sad that this man been planted atop a powerful board that decides how and why a cultural product as ubiquitous as Indian cinema gets watched and circulated.
It's my fight Vs a dictatorial man sitting there operating like an oligarch in his constituency of censor board, that's my North Korea
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 7, 2016
There is no film more honest than UDTA PUNJAB .. And any person or party opposing it is actually GUILTY of promoting drugs
— Anurag Kashyap (@anuragkashyap72) June 6, 2016
Anurag Kashyap's North Korea allusion, therefore, is apt, but it's also extremely scary. Because we have left the realm of comic indifference to stooges like Nihalani and are now face-to-face with bigger, more sinister power brokers who pull the actual strings. This "distrust" of the Indian mind, to forbid it from seeing and hearing, reading and appreciating, speeches, words, images, paintings, books, songs, amongst a horde of other things - is really not about Udta Punjab alone.
I am not aware of the issue, but would like to say that don't try to kill creativity : Amitabh Bachchan #UdtaPunjab pic.twitter.com/zFa7y3Ghbr
— ANI (@ANI_news) June 8, 2016
Glad that Bollywood has stood up against Nihalani, but it must realise he's only a front.