Author: IANS
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 14, 2004
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/885028.cms
Filmmaker Prakash Jha Thursday stood
firmly by his refusal to make any "politically correct" changes in his
film on socialist messiah Jayaprakash Narayan, stating it was up to the
government to "mutilate" it.
Jha, who has always courted controversy
with his films centred on political and social issues, said he would wait
to see the fate of his film before taking further recourse.
"I have delivered the film and they
are the owners of it now," Jha told IANS. "They can shelve it, ban it or
mutilate it. Let us see what they do to it."
In a letter, the state-owned broadcaster
Prasar Bharati asked Jha to make several changes in the film, a bio-picture
on then political stalwart Jayaprakash Narayan, who formed an opposition
front against then prime minister Indira Gandhi and her repressive emergency
rule of 1975.
Indira Gandhi had at the time imprisoned
scores of political opponents and imposed severe curbs on the media, a
dark period in India's democratic history that Congress has still to live
down.
Plainly disgusted with Prasar Bharti
chief executive K S Sarma's letter seeking changes and cuts in the film,
Jha said: "It is so unfortunate that when Indira Gandhi admitted the Emergency
was wrong, Sonia Gandhi admitted it was wrong and now (Sonia's son and
MP) Rahul Gandhi has said it was wrong, some bureaucrats does not think
it was wrong."
The film, commissioned by the department
of culture and made at a cost of Rs 9 million, was to be shown on the October
11 birth anniversary of Jayaprakash Narayan.
Jha pointed out that when he submitted
the film in March, it was all cleared and ready to be aired in October.
"Six months later, there is a new regime and everything has changed."
The film had been cleared when the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - whose top leaders were among the victims
of the emergency rule - was still in power in New Delhi. The BJP-led National
Democratic Alliance (NDA) was unseated by a
Congress-led regime in May.
The Prasar Bharati told Jha that
the latter half of the film "does not portray a balanced presentation of
events of those times, and in view of the sensitivities involved the programme
needs modifications".
It had asked Jha to give his opinion
for final approval before November 1.
"The need to impose Emergency and
counterpoint should also be brought out," said the board, asking to balance
opinionated views with views from all political shades.
It said the map of India shown in
the beginning did not show the geographical boundaries of undivided India
correctly, and asked that slogans against Indira Gandhi and remarks against
her son Sanjay Gandhi be edited.
The letter also suggested that Jha
roped in J K Jain, Jayaprakash Narayan's personal physician who joined
the Congress in March, to "enhance our understanding".
Regretting the uncalled for controversy,
Jha said: "I don't have to make any changes - it is up to them. To the
best of my creative conscience, I have documented history. If they do not
have the guts to show it, it is their problem."
