New Delhi: Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, while reacting over the cuts suggested by the Censor Board, said that ‘Punjab’ cannot be separated from his film.
"It is absolutely not possible to cut references to Punjab," he told new agency ANI.
Kashyap, further, asserted that Udta Punjab is not against any political party but against the drug menace.
"The film is not anti-Akali or anti-BJP, it is anti-drugs. A film about how youth are losing lives."
Reportedly, Censor Board has recommended 89 cuts in the movie and asked the makers to drop references about Punjab. The board has refused to give it a release certificate without the required cuts and drop of Punjab from the title of the movie.
However, Anurag Kashyap is adamant on protecting the film and fighting for it.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, while talking to media over the controversy, asserted that the Centre has nothing to do with the Censor Board's decision. He even suggested Kashyap to appeal against committee's recommendations to a movie appellate tribunal.
But Kashyap said he cannot do that till he has those recommendations in writing.
"'How do we go to the tribunal..Nihalani hasn't given us a letter on cuts. We have been left in a coma for the last five days and we are awaiting their letter," he told ANI.
Kashyap also fired guns at Censor Board Chief Pehlaj Nihlani describing him as an "out-of work filmmaker" whose work is "ancient, extinct" and accuses of acting "like a dictator."
"The Censor Board is his North Korea...Nihalani sits in the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and dictates everything. The rest of the CBFC doesn't have a voice now," the filmmaker alleged.
Starring Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh in lead roles, Udta Punjab has created quite a buzz among the movie-goers since day one of its trailer release. Not just its star cast or music, the flick has also been well received for its unique subject.
The movie seeks to touch the topic of drug abuse in the poll bound Punjab. The problem has, apparently, taken the shape of a menace in the state with 76% people between the age of 15 to 35 involved in the drugs take.
