Anurag Kashyap wants Nihalani’s ouster, but says it’s not enough

Asked if replacing Nihalani would make a difference in the way the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) functions, Anurag said, “It depends who comes in. I think replacing is not going to solve the problem. It is also to do with guidelines. It depends... The Censor Board should be made free of political things.”

  But at the same time the 43-year-old filmmaker feels that Nihalani needs to go. “Yes, he needs to be sacked. We have been told that they are looking into this whole thing. Let’s see what happens, we would wait and see what happens. The system needs to change, new guidelines should come and a new Censor Board chief is needed. All this needs to happen,” he added.

‘Udta Punjab’, produced by Phantom Films and Balaji Motion Pictures, deals with the issue of substance abuse in Punjab.

The Bombay high court had on Monday ordered the CBFC to certify ‘Udta Punjab’ within 48 hours with just one cut so that its producers can release the movie on June 17.

Asked if he was surprised that the CBFC welcomed HC’s verdict, Anurag said, “I am not here to judge people. These kind of questions create strange disharmony that mislead people. It is not a football match.” 

When prodded if interpretation of guidelines is at fault or guidelines are at fault, Anurag said, “(The) fight is about ideology. We want a certification board. I&B Minister Arun Jaitley has promised changes. He has said they will bring second report of Shyam Benegal’s committee and implement it.”

Kashyap said they were careful in not letting the film get dragged into politics while they were fighting the censorship.

“Something that we have consistently seen that in such cases, the issue always gets lost, gets too political and people get too defensive. It kind of loses scope. This fight was about the film, about what we believed in. I think it stayed singular and the industry joined in,” he said.