Exhibitors say that they removed the film from their schedules on Wednesday night after being informed that it had not yet received a CBFC certificate
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; April 5, 2019)

The biopic on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, starring Vivek Anand Oberoi, was scheduled to release today, but it will not make it to the big screen this week. Exhibitors removed the film from their programming schedule on Wednesday night after being informed that it had not yet received a CBFC certificate.

On Monday, during a hearing of a PIL seeking a stay on the film’s release, Advait Sethna, counsel for the CBFC, told the Bombay High Court that the scheduled examination for the film’s certification was on Wednesday. Some exhibitors tell us that after seeing the film, the CBFC asked for three cuts, after which the makers will have to show the film to the board again.

According to the CBFC guidelines, the committee ideally requires 68 days for film certification, but this film was submitted just two days before its release date. The film’s team did not respond to our queries about why it was submitted to the CBFC so close to the release date. Till the time of going to press, it still wasn’t certain if the film would release today or be pushed to April 12, its original release date.

When BT reached out to producer Sandeep Ssingh, he told us, “Our film is not releasing today. Once we have further clarity on the subject, we will update everyone.”

FILM REMOVED FROM RELEASE LIST
PM Narendra Modi was removed from the Friday release list of theatres on Wednesday night. Some exhibitors told us that the film had not received its CBFC certificate.

Rajender Singh Jyala, Chief Programming Officer at INOX, said, “The film was scheduled to release on April 5, but the distributors told us that they had not received the CBFC certificate till late Wednesday evening. After that, the film was removed from our programming schedule. We were told that the film might release next week.”

Another exhibitor said, “It couldn’t get the CBFC certificate in time because the producers applied for it only after the Bombay HC on Monday dismissed the PIL requesting a stay on the film’s release. We don’t know whether it will release next week or not. Multiple theories are doing the rounds, but one thing is confirmed – the film doesn’t have the CBFC certificate yet. We have allotted all the Modi biopic shows to Kesari instead.”

Manoj Desai, executive director of G7 and Maratha Mandir, said, “We were asked by the distributors to not start with the advance bookings. Since we haven’t received the Censor certificate yet, we are not sure about the release. But we haven’t taken off the publicity hoardings from our theatres.”

IS APRIL 12 THE RELEASE DATE?
Shaaminder Mallik, a Delhi-based distributor, said, “We have confirmed information that the CBFC committee has suggested three cuts, and after the cuts, the film needs to be shown to the committee again, following which, the committee will decide if the film can be given a certificate or not. We got to know that the film will be released next Friday, but it is not official yet.” Carnival Cinemas also confirmed that there is no official announcement of the next release date.

AFTER HC DISPOSED OF PIL SEEKING STAY, PETITIONER APPROACHES SUPREME COURT
On Monday, the Bombay High Court disposed of a PIL asking for a stay on the film’s release. The court directed the Election Commission to take a call on the issue. Pradeep Rajagopal, who represented the Election Commission in the court, said that the release of the film during this period is not a violation of the model code of conduct.

However, on Wednesday, there were several reports that said that the “EC is still conflicted” about the film’s release. When we asked Rajagopal if the EC still had any objections, he said that he had no such information.

On Wednesday, advocate Tosif Shaikh, who was representing the petitioner of the PIL in the Bombay HC, said that they have now filed a Special Leave Petition in the Supreme Court. “Our contention is that the EC is acting in collusion and not taking action. They issued a notice to the people connected to the movie only after we filed a petition in the Bombay High Court. We have approached the Supreme Court to seek a stay on releasing the movie only during the election period,” he told Mumbai Mirror.

Since Bombay, Delhi and Madhya Pradesh high courts have refused to intervene in the matter, the Supreme Court has reportedly agreed to hear a plea challenging the release of the biopic as a violation of the Moral Code of Conduct, for the Lok Sabha polls of 2019. The hearing will be held on April 8.
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The film is going through the due process of examination and certification according to the requisite guidelines and is yet to be certified as the process is not complete at this point

– Statement from Prasoon Joshi, Chairman, CBFC, at 3 pm on Thursday