Udta Punjab flies into controversy: India’s integrity to free speech

 

 

Pahlaj Nihalani, from India’s censor board complained the film depicted Punjab in a bad light so the censor board has ordered that all references to the state and politics including words such as election, party, parliament and MP be deleted. The film’s producer appealed to the High Court of Bombay, which asked the censor board to justify all its demanded cuts.

The Indian film and Television Director’s Association has lent their support to the filmmakers in what it argues as a landmark test for free speech.

In a tweet Mr Kashyap said “there is no film more honest than Udta Punjab and any person, party opposing it is actually guilty of promoting drugs. I always wondered  what it felt like to live in North Korea, Now there is no need to even catch a plane”.

This week Mr Kashyap’s production company, Phantom Films signed a deal with US-based Netfix to produce a screen version of Sacred Games, a 945-page detective thriller about religious rivalry in Mumbai’s underworld. The depiction of Udta Punjab and its detail documentation of drug abuse problem are heightened ahead of state legislative assembly elections next year.

The political landscape of Punjab ruled for the past decade by Shiromani Akali Dal Party and the powerful Badal family  which is in league with Modi’s BJP.