'Zed Plus' faced trouble at the censors because of character's resemblance to PM Modi
The film’s release had to be postponed for a week
Mumbai: Dr Chandraprakash Diwedi who has in the past given us politically vibrant content for cinema and television like 'Pinjar' and 'Chanakya', had to go through an ordeal by fire to get his new film 'Zed Plus' cleared by the censor board. And that, after the political satire where the prime minister played by by Kulbhushan Kharbanda bears an uncanny resemblance to our Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Recounts Dr Diwedi, “The Revising Committee had cleared my film without cuts. But when I reached home thinking that I will get the certificate in a couple of hours I was informed by the agent that the decision of the revising committee will be sent to the chair -person for the final orders, as two members of the censor board had advised cuts...while four members were in favour of no cuts.”
The decision to stop the film was taken just 3 days before release.
Shudders the director, “Once again I had to go through the ordeal of waiting for the final orders. We finally got the censor certificate on 25 November evening. You can very well understand the anxiety of a filmmaker whose film is slated for release on 28th and who doesn’t have a censor certificate till 25th. I slept on the 25th night after a month!”
There were objections to various politically-connected words when Dr Diwedi had originally submitted the film to the censors. “Even in the promo some members of the censorboard wanted to delete the word ‘prime’ from ‘prime minister’, ‘Bharat’ from ‘Bharat sarkar’. They also wanted me to delete the slogan ‘Pradhan Mantri Murdabad’ and funnily enough they didn’t want any reference to the state of Rajathan.”
Argues Dr Diwedi, “My entire film revolves around the Prime Minister. In such a situation I had no option but to go to the Revising Committee. First I had to struggle to get the theatrical trailers and promos cleared, and then the film. All of it, the promos and the theatrical trailers and the full feature film, went to the Revising Committee.”
The film’s release had to be postponed for a week. “There was no censor clearance for theatrical trailers and television promos. Without promos and trailers how could I promote a film?”
But all is well now. “The film is releasing without cuts. It’s all because of the Revising Committee headed by Nandini Sardesai.”