‘Mohalla Assi’ finally certified after a year-long battle

With many filmmakers refraining from telling controversial stories due to the Central Board of Certification, director Chandraprakash Dwivedi was so persistent to get his film ‘Mohalla Assi’ certified he even went to court for it. Despite the process taking over a year, the CBFC was forced to certify the film, and have given it an A certificate with only 1 tweak.

According to Mumbai Mirror the CBFC refuse to certify the film as they expressed how “the form and content of the film were highly derogatory of humans, cult, culture, religion including but not limited to mythology.” Having been passed on the other committees within the organisation, Dwivedi was told to make cuts and changes to the film. He then decided to take the case to the Dehli High Court with a writ petition, the filmmaker underwent a 13 month battle in order to get his film cleared.

“Thirteen months of appearing in court and 11 hearings later, justice has been served,” Dwivedi was reported expressing.

He went on to add, “Through this film I was fighting for the rights of a creative person which involves authors and film writers. So many writers tell me that they are constantly fretting over potentially controversial subjects. I decided that it would be a moral defeat for our film if I approached any non-constitutional authorities.”

Talking about the verdict from the court, the filmmaker explained, “The court did not ask for a single cut and only suggested that we mute, delete or beep an abuse which Sunny (Deol) is mouthing in a sequence at a ghat which we complied with.”

With Deol playing the lead, ‘Mohalla Assi’ also stars  Sakshi Tanwar and is based on a book by  Kashi Nath Singh titled Kashi Ka Assi. It focuses on the events that took place from 1990 to 1998 that were run through politics. “It has been a long battle but we finally won. We intend to release the film before Holi,” Dwivedi confirms.

Stay with BizAsiaLive.com for more updates.