Anurag Kashyap known for making hard-hitting, bold movies like ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’ and ‘Dev D’ often is known to even voice out his opinions quite honestly. He is also known to have clash sometimes with many industry insiders and one such time was during ‘Udta Punjab’. The film was co-produced by him along with Ektaa Kapoor. Directed by Abhishek Chaubey, ‘Udta Punjab’ was under CBFC scanner and the board had suggested several cuts to the film. At that point, Pahlaj Nihalini was the chairperson of the censor board and now in a recent interview, he has recalled this controversy with Kashyap. Opening up on it, he said during a chat with Pinkvilla, “They were going to accept the cuts. His (Anurag Kashyap) film was not turning hot enough, despite creating so many controversies around it. Then Jeetendra who is Ektaa Kapoor’s father and CEO of the production company even came to get the certificate in the office, they came to get the cuts. We even had passed the language where it deserved, but wherever we found it unnecessary, we imposed cuts. We removed cuss words, but we remove even one single frame of the film.”
He then slammed Kashyap to create controversies around his film in order to create buzz. ” He thought six days are left for the film’s release, but it is not gaining any traction. This was Anurag‘s play, and he did it all the time. He would leak videos, this was his business point, and he cashes on that.” For those not in the know, CBFC had suggested 94 cuts in the film. The board objected to profanities, scenes of drug use and the references to Punjab including names of certain cities in the film. The board also wanted the makers to remove a scene where the lead character urinates in front of a crowd. CBFC also asked for disclaimers that acknowledged the Government’s effort to tackle drug issues in the country. The makers then approached Bombay high Court and the order ruled in their favour. Thus, the film was finally released with just one cut and ‘A’ certificate was given to it. ‘Udta Punjab’ starred Shahid Kapoor, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Alia Bhatt and Diljit Dosanjh.
