Director Seemaa Desai was surprised when her fantasy drama, Pappu Ki Pugdandi, was selected for the 'Kids' section of the Toronto International Film Festival, 2015. "It's not a hard-hitting film, the kind that gets selected to festivals," a candid Desai told Mirror.

The 90-minute film revolves around a little Pappu who comes from a lower middle class family and faces adjustment issues in his new school. It follows his unconventional journey and his interactions with his 'special' friend, Genie.

"The take-away for the children is that there are no shortcuts to happiness and one has to identify one's own strength," says Seemaa.

She insists that she was clear from the start that she did not want the film to have a 'preachy' tone, like the dark indie films that tour festivals. She wanted an entertaining film with songs and action. "I got Rohit Shetty's action director, Sunil Rodrigues, to design the stunts. There's an over-the-top action sequence with children flying and a 'good genie' bashing up an evil one. There's also a song crooned by Mika Singh. I am looking forward to a commercial release," says Seema.

The film produced by the Children's Film Society of India, opened at the National Film Festival in Delhi with a screening for 1800 kids. It will next be screened at the TIFF on April 7.

"I had no superstar to bring in the audience, so gathering appreciation from international film festivals will boost its prospects. We want to watch films which have been praised by foreigners," she reasons, adding that it was filmmaker Amole Gupte, Dr. Shravan Kumar, CEO, CFSI, and director Kundan Shah who took the decision to enter the film in the competition.

In the past, childrens' films like Gattu, which got a Special Mention from the International Jury at Generation Berlinale, 2012, and Kaphal, which won the National Film Award (NFA) for Best Children's Film, have fared well commercially.

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 5, 2015)

Mirror (March 3) had earlier reported about a split in the Examining Committee of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) over the Anushka Sharma starrer, NH10, and its possible certification. After a screening on Monday, some members were ready to pass the film with a few cuts and an Adult certificate while others maintained that film had plenty of violence and abusive language, and shouldn't be certified at all.

Following this, the producers took the film to the Revising Committee who watched the film on Wednesday and cleared it with an 'A" certificate. "NH10 has been passed with a few audio cuts and a video cut that does not damage the film at all. They saw it completely in context and even appreciated it. It was a very reassuring revising committee," said Anurag Kashyap, who has co-produced the film with Anushka.

His business partner, Vikas Bahl, was equally jubilant. "The RC's decision was unanimous. They understood what we were talking about and saw the larger picture," he said. "Even the visual cut was minimal. The scene was retained, we were just told to edit it a bit. And many of the cuss words too have been retained." This decision has gladdened not only the film's makers but the film fraternity too. The development comes after the February 26 meeting of the Minister of State for I & B, Rajyavardhan Rathore with a Bollywood contingent, which included Anurag Kashyap, Mukesh Bhatt and Siddharth Roy Kapur. They were told by the minister to "ignore" CBFC Chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani's order banning the use of certain cuss words and expressions.

The chief's diktat also banned glorification of blood, violence against women and double meaning dialogue. NH10 is the story of a woman's revenge, is peppered with expletives and gore. CBFC CEO, Shravan Kumar, points out that the idea is to disseminate information through the process of certification to a cinema loving population about the film's content so it will facilitate the choices they make. "The idea is not to curb the creative freedom of the filmmaker," he maintained.
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The Censor Board's revising committee granted an adult certificate to Anushka Sharma's first home production 'NH10' on Wednesday, effecting nine cuts in all.

The screening chaired by Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani told the makers that he was being "liberal" with the certification as it dealt with an important subject of women empowerment, says the film's director, Navdeep Singh.

"Initially, they asked for 30 audio and video cuts, but we justified our position and the cuts came down to nine. There was an argument over the word kutti which I insisted on retaining, but Mr Nihalani just didn't agree, so we decided to comply as we don't have the time to take the film to a higher forum," he adds Navdeep states he has no issues with an 'A' certificate. "We knew it was coming the day we started the film," he says.

The film as submitted to the Board last week, but the examining committee saw it only on Monday. A source says, "Three members on the panel objected to the violence, more than the cuss words, arguing it was unfit for public viewing. Two others were willing to clear the film with an 'A' certificate with a few cuts."

Given this deadlock, the producers then took the film to the revising committee, which finally cleared it today. It was initially planned for a March 6 release to pre-empt the problem of having issues of cuss words which could have landed them in trouble with the Censor Board. Its trailer has not been screened on television for as its content has been adult-certified too.

The film is based on a young couple, Anushka and Neil Bhoopalam, whose road trip goes awry after an encounter with a group of violent criminals. Darshan Kumar will be seen in a negative role.

Roshmilla Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; February 24, 2015)

The Censor Board of Film Certification on Monday put on hold a controversial decision of its chairman Pahlaj Nihalani to ban the use of 28 words and expressions in films.

The decision was taken after a fivehour meeting of the Board where a majority of the members objected to Nihalani issuing the list of Hindi and English cuss words without consulting them.

Nihalani's list, which also ordered that film dialogues refer to the city as Mumbai and not Bombay, had led to a wave of protests in the film industry. Nihalani order was so arbitrary that it in just one sweep it banned the use of the 15 Hindi and 13 English words and expressions across all categories of film certification - A (adult), UA (under parental guidance) and U (unrestricted public exhibition).

Nihalani's order stated that words like 'maarna', 'lena', 'bajana', if related to sex, should also be deleted. It also instructed that glorification of bloodshed, violence against women and use of double-entendre will not be allowed.

The Board members on Monday argued that Nihalani had no right to issue such a diktat without consulting them. "The list should have been cleared by the Board first and then sent to the Information & Broadcasting Ministry for its final decision," said a source present in the meeting.

Many Board members objected when Nihalani said that as a filmmaker he never felt the need to use cuss words in his films. He was told he could not use his own preferences and prejudices to take decisions on the Board's behalf.

The Board would now meet sometime next week to reconsider the list. In the meantime, the films that suffered cuts based on Nihalani's list can seek a fresh review.

When Mirror contacted Nihalani on Monday night, he said: "Since you are referring to a Board meeting, I cannot comment on it. Shravan Kumar (the CEO of the CBFC and its spokesperson) will issue a press release on Tuesday."

Despite repeated attempts, Shravan Kumar chose not to comment.