Selective protest over films is wrong: Madhur Bhandarkar

Panaji, Nov 23: National Award winning film director Madhur Bhandarkar on Thursday rued the fact that he did not get the kind of support Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Padmavati' was getting and said the industry used to be selective over protest against films.

Responding to questions during a press conference at the ongoing 48th International Film Festival of India (IFFI) here, he said, 'I have said very often that when it came to my film… The selective outrage attitude of people over films is wrong. There should not be things like this… I was disillusioned because I did not get any support from anyone, nor from any intellectual. I thought those people who also speak of freedom of expression will come and support. But there was no support from that side. There was a problem in making a film based on history or politics with whoever was at the administration, Madhur said, adding that “Whatever the administration, these things happen. The Censor (Board) said you call the movie fiction, so I added a big disclaimer. Then no one has a problem. But if you are saying it is real and the story is about history and politics, then it is a big problem. You cannot make it. Somebody will come and make a petition to want to stop the film.” Sharing the travails he faced during the release ‘Indu Sarkar’, a film set in the emergency era, the director who has made films like 'Page 3' and 'Traffic Signal', said, 'When you are making a film, there is always a fear that political parties might do something. Such things have happened.

We named the film Indu Sarkar and said it was set in the times of emergency. Then I felt that people were uncomfortable. There were controversies and it was said that the film is sponsored and it should be banned, show it upto us. The same thing which is happening to Sanjay Bhansali.” “At that time, I was suffering it in July 2017. We had to change a lot of things in the film, a lot we had to tweak. I was alone in fighting the battle with my team from the High Court to Supreme Court to the Censor Board to the states, everywhere. There was a lot of difficulty and this has been happening for some time now,” he said. Recalling how the films have faced problems earlier, the filmmaker said films like Nana Patekar’s 'Ghulam-e- Mustafa', 'Da Vinci Code', 'Singh is King', 'Sadda Haq' all had to face problem before their release but he always had extended his support to the filmmakers whoever he was. However, he rued that when his films started facing hostilities and his press conferences were interrupted, no one came in support of him, though privately they claimed to be with him. The film maker was of the opinion that Censor Board should be the final authority over release of the films and there should not be any scope for any individual or organisation to take over that role. “For once after the censor board passes the film, then no one should have an objection and the movie should be released, whether it is Padmavati or any other film,” he said. To a question, he said it was the prerogative of the director of any film whether he would screen that film before a certain section of people or not. UNI