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The city banning his film just proves his point, feels director Hansal Mehta
Subhash K Jha (DNA; March 1, 2016)

Hansal Mehta is livid over the unconstitutional ban on his film Aligarh in the city that it is named after. Though there was no formal announcement barring the film from being released in Aligarh, the city’s mayor Shakuntala Bharti has been quoted as saying that the film links the city of Aligarh with homosexuality and that according to the mayor, is nothing short of defamation. Here’s what Hansal had to say...

Your reaction to the ban on Aligarh?
The ban is most unexpected. It just proves what the film is saying: that Aligarh is a homophobic city. Also, if as reported, the ruling regime has anything to do with this unofficial ban, then it also shows them in very poor light.

Is this why you shot the film in Bareilly?
Just before we were to leave for a recce to Aligarh, we were threatened. We had hired a local guy in Aligarh to help us with the locations. News that we were supposed to shoot over there, got out through him. The night before we were supposed to drive from Delhi to Aligarh, my son Jai received a warning against shooting there.

You changed the location overnight?
Yes. Jai still wanted us to go to Aligarh. In fact, the entire team insisted we did. But I reminded them we were not making the film to win bravery awards. We were doing it because we wanted the world to know the story of this man named Prof Sreenivas Siras. We didn’t expect to fight unending battles with homophobic people.

Do you intend to fight this unconstitutional ban in Aligarh?
That isn’t the only battle I’ve had to fight. Some writ petitions have been filed against me in the Lucknow court. Apparently, the rickshawwallah who was allegedly found making love with Prof Siras and the reporter who entered Prof Siras’s house and found him making love, have filed a criminal case against me. But I am yet to be served any notice regarding this matter.

What is the rickshawallah’s grouse?
His grouse is that I am defaming him by showing him in a poor light in my film. That he is not a homosexual, and that he has five children and that apparently, Professor Siras forced him to have sex.

But that changes the entire subject of your film...
It changes nothing. It just shows how desperate some elements are to stop the film. This is our country. This is tolerant India.

19 years ago, Deepa Mehta’s Fire went through the same ordeal.
I am aware of that. The same elements who tried to stop Fire are still very active. Now when the fire is raging in Aligarh, the elements that tried to stop Deepa’s film are in power now. I wonder what they have against us Mehtas. (Laughs)