Censors wanted to delete words 'prime' from 'prime minister' & 'Bharat' from 'Bharat sarkar'-Zed Plus director
7:39 AM
Subhash K Jha (DNA; November 29, 2014)
Dr Chandraprakash
Dwivedi, who has in the past given us politically vibrant content for
cinema and television like Pinjar and Chanakya, had to go through an
ordeal by fire to get his new film Zed Plus cleared by the censor board.
The political satire that has Kulbhushan Kharbanda palying the prime minister bears an uncanny resemblance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recounts Dwivedi, “The Revising Committee had cleared my film without cuts. But when I reached home thinking that I will get the certificate in a couple of hours I was informed by the agent that the decision of the revising committee will be sent to the chairperson for the final orders, as two members of the censor board had advised cuts, while four members were in favour of no cuts.”
The decision to stop the film was taken just three days before release. Says the director, “Once again I had to go through the ordeal of waiting for the final orders. We finally got the censor certificate on November 25 in the evening. You can very well understand the anxiety of a filmmaker, whose film is slated for release on 28th and who doesn’t have a censor certificate till 25th. I slept on the 25th night after a month!”
There were objections to various politically-connected words when Dwivedi had originally submitted the film to the censors. “Even in the promo some members of the censor board wanted to delete the word ‘prime’ from ‘prime minister', ‘Bharat’ from ‘Bharat sarkar’. They also wanted me to delete the slogan ‘Pradhan Mantri Murdabad’ and funnily enough, they didn’t want any reference to the state of Rajasthan.”
The film’s release had to be postponed for a week. “There was no censor clearance for theatrical trailers and television promos. Without promos and trailers how could I promote a film?”
But in the end, it all turned out well. The film released without cuts. “It’s all because of the Revising Committee headed by Nandini Sardesai,” he says.
Dr Chandraprakash
Dwivedi, who has in the past given us politically vibrant content for
cinema and television like Pinjar and Chanakya, had to go through an
ordeal by fire to get his new film Zed Plus cleared by the censor board.The political satire that has Kulbhushan Kharbanda palying the prime minister bears an uncanny resemblance to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Recounts Dwivedi, “The Revising Committee had cleared my film without cuts. But when I reached home thinking that I will get the certificate in a couple of hours I was informed by the agent that the decision of the revising committee will be sent to the chairperson for the final orders, as two members of the censor board had advised cuts, while four members were in favour of no cuts.”
The decision to stop the film was taken just three days before release. Says the director, “Once again I had to go through the ordeal of waiting for the final orders. We finally got the censor certificate on November 25 in the evening. You can very well understand the anxiety of a filmmaker, whose film is slated for release on 28th and who doesn’t have a censor certificate till 25th. I slept on the 25th night after a month!”
There were objections to various politically-connected words when Dwivedi had originally submitted the film to the censors. “Even in the promo some members of the censor board wanted to delete the word ‘prime’ from ‘prime minister', ‘Bharat’ from ‘Bharat sarkar’. They also wanted me to delete the slogan ‘Pradhan Mantri Murdabad’ and funnily enough, they didn’t want any reference to the state of Rajasthan.”
The film’s release had to be postponed for a week. “There was no censor clearance for theatrical trailers and television promos. Without promos and trailers how could I promote a film?”
But in the end, it all turned out well. The film released without cuts. “It’s all because of the Revising Committee headed by Nandini Sardesai,” he says.
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