Haraamkhor gets schooled

After a long and arduous struggle with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) that went on for over eight months, Haraamkhor was for slotted a January 13 release with an adult certification due to its controversial theme of a romantic relationship between a school teacher and his student. However, it would seem that the film isn’t quite out of troubled waters yet, as producer Guneet Monga and his team were recently reported to have been inundated with hate mail and even death threats sent via mail and on social media. While the threats indicate that conservative factions are unhappy with the theme of the movie, the makers of the film are adamant in maintaining that it is a story that needs to be told.

“We have in no way glorified the student teacher relationship. At no point in the film do you look at Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s character and think ‘that is someone I want to be’. It shows the story of a convoluted adult teacher through the eyes of two innocent children. At no point in the film do you feel like this is something that should happen,” says director Shlok Sharma, adding that teacher-student romances are a fact of life and therefore need to be portrayed.

The director recounts an incident of stumbling across a real life case of a student-teacher relationship while touring Gujarat, looking for locations for their shoots. “People would ask us about what the film is about. In one of these villages, the villagers told us that the local music teacher had married his student. While their story is one that had a happy ending, not everyone’s does,” he recounts.

Lead actress Shweta Tripathi has a simple explanation for the opposition the film is facing. “Haraamkhor is on a very universal theme; it is something that happens across the world. But, society is often adverse to being shown the mirror,” she says, candidly.

The Masaan actress expresses her indignation at the fact that people are judging the movie before even watching it or knowing the story in its entirety. “The movie has no skin show, no item numbers. While I am not condemning movies that do have them, I can’t help but feel that it is unfair that they get passed easily and small-budget, meaningful films like Haraamkhor face so many adversities,” she exclaims.

Despite the many setbacks, both the director and his lead actress have a positive outlook. Shweta states confidently that her responsibility, as an actor, requires her to choose meaningful roles. “I will continue to act in films that I believe will make a difference,” says the actress.

Shlok goes as far as to say that he does not want to pay any attention to the threats, since that will only give them undue importance. “The film is releasing after four years of struggle, it is a happy moment for me. I don’t want to encourage the resistance by speaking about threats. Let the movie come to the theatres and let the audience decide,” he challenges.

Navdeep Singh, director
The film has got an adult certificate from the Censor Board, as is the case with those films that have controversial topics or scenes. That’s what I think we all need to go by. For instance, if a Khap panchayat had had a problem with NH10, theirs wouldn’t have been the opinion that people would listen to, it would be the constitutional body’s. As for Haraamkhor itself, I think that it is going to portray some very valid facts; I don’t think that the film is a threat to society or anything like that.

Vivek Agnihotri, director
I am a firm believer in freedom of expression. Even if someone were to say that God is a murderer, they are within their rights to say so, whether people agree with them or not. However, in a country as diverse as ours, people are bound to have varying views. So, of course, there will be those against Haraamkhor. Those who don’t like the idea of the film can just not go to watch it.