Actress Kangana Ranaut has voiced her support for the makers of Udta Punjab, the upcoming Bollywood movie which is mired in censorship controversy.
“We are all very concerned about the things that are happening right now. I am deeply disturbed by the controversy surrounding Udta Punjab. To an extent, my friends in the industry feel bullied. We all know that there is a process to certify films. But this kind of censorship is not done,” said the actress at a recent awards ceremony.
The CBFC revising committee had asked the filmmaker to remove all references of Punjab, politics and elections from the film. Earlier, the Censor Board had refused to clear the film, thanks to the excessive use of expletives and scenes showing drug consumption in the movie. Subsequently, the film was referred to a panel called the Revising Committee.
A number of Bollywood celebrities have condemned the CBFC’s actions and Kangana Ranaut is the latest to weigh in.
The actress said she spoke from personal experience.”When we were shooting Queen, there was intense research that went into the kind of wardrobe that someone like Rani would wear. So, a bra was brought from Lajpat Nagar to Paris. Cinema is all about making real world come alive onscreen. As artists, we wanted to be sincere in our attempt to do so and show the audience the kind of person Rani was and the world she inhabited. But even that was taken away from us. During Censors, they asked us to blur the bra because it was vulgar. My director was furious about it. Why? A woman’s bra is not a danger to society. We need our own creative freedom. There is so much outrage now because we’re sort of pressed against the wall” She further urged everybody to stop having ‘parental views towards audience’.
Calling herself a ‘quintessential underdog’, she also addressed the highly publicised feud between her and actor Hrithik Roshan, albeit obliquely. “I had hit rock bottom some time ago. But now I’m high.”