Madhur Bhandarkar expresses his agitation over censorship of his film Indu Sarkar

July 11, 2017 - 12:27 PM IST

The film Indu Sarkar has been caught in the web of a major controversy owing to its political references. Directed by realistic filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, the period drama set during the emergency period has been facing severe protests from a certain political party that was in power then. Now, the filmmaker is even more upset after the Censors asked him to make some major alterations in the film.

Madhur Bhandarkar expresses his agitation over censorship of his film Indu Sarkar

The Congress Party had earlier created quite a stir asking for the ban of the film for ‘their untrue depiction in a negative light’ in the film. Soon, Madhur Bhandarkar went on to approach the Central Board of Film Certification for his film and now the results have left the director shocked. Talking about the same, Madhur stated that he hasn’t been allowed to take the names of popular politicians like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Morarji Desai among others and that even political terms like ‘Akali’ and the organisation RSS have been denied to use in the film.

Furthermore, he exclaimed about how Kishore Kumar’s name too was asked to be changed [the singer had refused to sing for a Congress Rally during the 70s emergency period]. The filmmaker expressed his disappointment over the banning of certain lines like ‘Ab iss desh mein Gandhi ke maayne badal chuke hain’ which were a part of the film’s trailer that released across the web and broadband platforms. When references like IB and even PM were blacklisted by the Censor Board to use in films, Madhur went on question the yardstick on the basis of which Censor is imposing these rules.

Besides these cuts, Madhur Bhandarkar has also been asked to add two disclaimers in the film. While the filmmaker asserted that he would continue to fight for his film and exercise the fundamental right of ‘freedom of expression’, he will take the film ahead to higher authorities – like the Revising Committee and the Appellate Tribunal.

Starring Kriti Kulhari, Neil Nitin Mukesh and others, Indu Sarkar narrates the story of a stammering poetess who emerges as a ray of hope during the dark era of emergency and it is slated to release on July 28.