The raging controversy about Udta Punjab, the hard-hitting anti-drugs film set in Punjab’s heartland, refuses to die down. The film’s director Abhishek Choubey has so far kept quiet about his film’s fate, but co-producer Anurag Kashyap has been severely vocal, even calling the CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani “an extremely egoistic man”.
Pahlaj Nihalani, however, puts the matter in perspective. “The problem is, the disclaimer that they’ve put at the start of the film saying Udta Punjab is a work of fiction makes no sense. Because all the prominent cities of Punjab are mentioned by name and shown as drug-infested areas. Otherwise we’ve restored even the abuses that we had advised to be deleted from the trailer including Alia Bhatt’s abusive language. Shahid’s character uses abusive language throughout the film. We’ve even agreed to let him talk dirty. It’s one thing for an individual to be abusive. But how can we allow the whole of Punjab to be abused ”
Adds a notable source from the government, “No one told Kashyap that all references to Punjab have to be cut. But yes, naming Punjab as a drug-infested state in the film is a problem. We suspect that the state is not going to react favourably to being shown as a hotbed of substance abuse. So the film is already in trouble in Punjab. As for not naming the state, we can’t get away from that because 60 per cent of the dialogues are in Punjabi. If the characters are constantly speaking in Punjabi how can Punjab be taken out of Udta Punjab ”
The solution, according to the source, is to take out references to the Punjab elections and the election commission from the film.
