‘Emergency’ film producers have agreed to suggested cuts, censor board tells Bombay HC
The movie’s release, initially scheduled for September 6, was delayed after protests from several quarters including Sikh groups.
The Central Board of Film Certification on Monday told the Bombay High Court that the producers of the Hindi-language film Emergency have agreed to most of the cuts suggested by its revising committee, reported Live Law.
This came on a plea by co-producer Zee Entertainment asking that the movie be certified for release. On Thursday, the film certification body told the High Court that Emergency could be released after making the suggested cuts.
Emergency, starring actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut, was initially scheduled to be in theatres on September 6 but its release was delayed after protests from several quarters including Sikh groups.
The film is based on the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s government in 1975. Ranaut, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi, is also the writer and director of the film, besides having co-produced it through her company Manikarnika Films.
At an earlier hearing, Zee Entertainment claimed that the film’s release was being stalled by the Central Board of Film Certification because the movie is seen as anti-Sikh and that the BJP did not want to hurt the sentiments of Haryana’s sizeable Sikh population before Assembly elections there on October 5.
“She [Ranaut] has informed us through an email that she met the Central Board of Film Certification and has agreed with the cuts,” the counsel for Zee Entertainment told the court on Monday.
The film board has suggested 13 changes to the film, namely six insertions, four excisions and three modifications, reported The Indian Express. A part of a dialogue referring to Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale as a “saint” has been asked to be removed along with certain anti-Sikh imagery and dialogues.
Bhindranwale was a Sikh militant and a critic of the Emergency. He was killed in Operation Blue Star, an Army operation carried out in June 1984 to remove him and other armed militants from the Golden Temple in Amritsar, Punjab.
The board also told the producers to delete a dialogue mentioning Khalistan, a proposed independent nation for Sikhs that some members of the community hope to carve out of India.
