"Thank you CBFC Revising Committee," the director tweeted (courtesy imbhandarkar)
Highlights
- 'Indu Sarkar has been cleared with few cuts,' the director tweeted
- 'Happy and relieved,' he added
- Indu Sarkar is a fictionalised view of the 1975-1977 Emergency
has been cleared for release this Friday by the Central Board of Film Certification's Revising Committee and director Madhur Bhandarkar has exhaled audibly on Twitter. The film,
set in the Emergency, has not been passed intact but Mr Bhandarkar declared himself pleased. "Thank you CBFC Revising Committee. #InduSarkar has been cleared with few cuts. Happy and relieved. See you in cinemas this Friday," Madhur Bhandarkar wrote in a tweet. On a separate front, the Bombay High Court has refused to stay the release of the film after being petitioned by a woman who claims to be Sanjay Gandhi's unacknowledged daughter. So it's all systems go for
Indu Sarkar.
See Madhur Bhandarkar's tweet:
A clamour rose against Indu Sarkarfrom various political quarters, including Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia, expressing concern about the representation of Indira Gandhi's government and how the Emergency played out. The Censor Board also came down heavily on the film, demanding that references to the RSS, Akali Dal and even singer Kishore Kumar be deleted.
Director Madhur Bhandarkar refused to submit to the diktat, saying he would use every method available to him to fight the
Censor Board's order. In a
blog for NDTV.com, Mr Bhandarkar wrote, "I was appalled and shocked - the way the trailer was passed and everything was okay with them (Censor Board); at the same time, they used a different yardstick for the film...They want me to remove everything - (the words) "Kishore Kumar", "RSS", "Communist", "Akali", "PM"...these are the words used every day by the media and everywhere. How do I remove it? It's the essence of the film."
Mr Bhandarkar also wrote that every Censor Board regime has been over-zealous with the scissors: "But CBFC has always had a problem - be it any tenure, any regime and that has gone for me from
Chandni Bar days.
Page 3,
Corporate,
Fashion and
Heroine, all my films have gone through this with the CBFC. For me, it's nothing new."
Indu Sarkar is a fictionalised view of the 1975-1977 Emergency as seen through the eyes of a citizen, played by actress Kirti Kulhari. Neil Nitin Mukesh is cast as Sanjay Gandhi and actress Supriya Vinod plays Indira Gandhi.