On Thursday, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) informed the Bombay High Court that its revising committee has come up with a suggestion of some cuts for the Kangana Ranaut film Emergency before its release.
The CBFC responded to a plea by co-producer Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, which alleged that the CBFC was illegally withholding certification for the film. Notably, it’s directed and co-produced by BJP MP Ranaut, who also plays the role of former prime minister Indira Gandhi.
A bench of Justices B P Colabawalla and Firdosh P Pooniwalla posted further hearing for Monday following the lawyer representing Zee Entertainment sought time to take instructions to decide whether the cuts should be made. On September 19, the High Court directed the CBFC to make a decision by September 25 about releasing the film, saying that the delay in certification restricts freedom of expression.
During an earlier hearing, the petitioner had contended a political angle that the Haryana elections were the reason for the delay in the release of the certification. The petitioner’s lawyer had submitted, ‘They (ruling party BJP) are willing to displease the sitting MP (Ranaut, who is a co-producer and represents the Mandi constituency in Lok Sabha) to appease a particular section of the society. Here is a film which is anti-Sikh as per some groups. Then who will be responsible for releasing an anti-Sikh movie? It will be the CBFC, which is the executive. So, some members of the community will say we will not vote for the ruling party in the coming Haryana elections’.
‘You mean to say the political party is ruling against its own member of Parliament? the bench had asked, to which the petitioner replied and sought an urgent decision. On Thursday, as the hearing on the plea started, Justice Colabawalla told advocate Abhinav Chandrachud representing CBFC, ‘Give us some good news’. Chandrachud responded that the Board has decided and suggested some cuts to the film and the film can be released if they are made/
Senior advocate Sharan Jagtiani, for the petitioner, sought time to take the instructions to decide whether the cuts could be made to the film. The high court said in a September 4 ruling that it was unable to pass the directions to the CBFC to issue Emergency’s certification due to a Madhya Pradesh High Court order on a plea by Sikh groups.
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