The filmmaker reacts to an FIR lodged against him and the team of his film, The Accidental Prime Minister, in Muzzafarpur
Rachana Dubey (BOMBAY TIMES; February 15, 2019)

The Muzaffarpur Police has lodged an FIR against filmmaker Vijay Ratnakar Gutte’s The Accidental Prime Minister and its actors Anupam Kher, Akshaye Khanna and 12 others associated with the project. Following a directive from the district court, a complaint was lodged at Kanti Police Station earlier this week, after the court objected to noncompliance of its January 8 order in this regard.

The Accidental Prime Minister released on January 11 and was based on a book of the same name written by Sanjaya Baru. He was employed with the PMO and his book presented an account of the tenure of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. On January 8, the court had ordered the police to lodge an FIR against the film’s actors and 12 others based on a complaint filed by advocate Sudhir Kumar Ojha with a plea that the film presents Dr Singh and a host of other public figures in poor light. The complaint has named Anupam Kher, who played Dr Manmohan Singh, Akshaye Khanna, who played Singh’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru, and even those actors who played Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Lal Krishna Advani and Lalu Prasad Yadav along with the film’s makers.

The advocate moved the court of Sub-Divisional Judicial Magistrate Saba Alam on February 4 to mention that the police had not complied with its order. A showcause notice was issued to Kanti Police Station through the Muzaffarpur senior superintendent of police and following this, an FIR was lodged under IPC sections 295, 153, 153A, 293, 504, 506, 120B and 34, which relate to promoting enmity among different groups, sale of obscene objects, insult with intent to provoke breach of peace and criminal conspiracy among other things. The complainant had alleged that Ojha felt hurt upon watching the promos of the movie, which was not released at that time, in which, he felt that public figures were portrayed in a manner that projected a poor image of India.

When we reached out to debutant director Vijay Ratnakar Gutte, who helmed the political drama, he told us, “Yes, I am aware that a complaint regarding our film has been filed, but none of us, who have been named, know the exact details of the complaint. The first time they raised a flag was before the release and only on the basis of what people saw in the trailer. I am shocked with these developments. The book on which the film is based has been in public domain since 2014. News channels have used its content for years and everyone knew about my film for about two years before it released. So, I don’t know what people are objecting to now and why. We tried something new with this film and we thought it will open gates for a different kind of cinema to be made in the country. I was under the impression that it had all worked out fine and after people saw the film, things have calmed down. But, this FIR has been lodged out of the blue and funnily enough, no one has officially communicated about it to us. At least, I have only heard about it from the media. After Padmaavat released, the issues around it subsided, but the story refuses to end in our case, even though the CBFC had passed the film with minor changes. I have had to face a lot of opposition with my very first film. It was a challenge to make it all look real, but I will never make a political film again in my career as a filmmaker.”