Chori Chori... negative seized

Entertainment Bureau

The film industry appears absolutely clueless about whether or not Chori Chori Chupke Chupke will make it to the cinema screens on December 22 since producer Nazim Rizvi's arrest.

In fact, latest reports say that the film will not be released next week. Reportedly, the film's negative was seized last night (December 14) at around 8 pm from Adlabs, Bombay, where the prints were to be processed.

While it is not clear whether the prints were physically seized, sources have confirmed that the lab and the people associated with the film have been ordered by the police not to take out any prints for delivery.

This new development rules out the possibility of the film hitting the screens on December 22 as scheduled.

Rumours about the film's release had been flying in all directions and there were as many stories as the people spreading them.

What lent credence to the theory that CCCC would hit the screens next week despite producer Nazim Rizvi's arrest under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act 1999 was the fact that the negative of the film was in the name of financier Bharat Shah. Although Nazim Rizvi is the film's producer, the world rights controller and the negative rights holder is Bharat Shah.

The police, therefore, was perceived as not really having a case to seize the negative.

In the meantime, the film, though cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (it was viewed on December 12), has not yet been issued a censor certificate.

It will be given a UA certificate. The delay in issuing the mandatory certificate has nothing to do with the criminal case against Rizvi.

The reason is that the cuts offered by the Central Board of Film Certification to the makers have not yet been submitted by them to the Board. The censor cuts are to be carried out on the negative itself, following which it is submitted to the CBFC.

The CBFC issues the certificate after verifying the cuts. Only after this, the film's prints are taken out for delivery. It is not known whether the makers of CCCC had already effected the cuts on the negative before it was seized.

In any case, even if they had been able to carry out the cuts, it would not have helped as no prints can be taken out now.

On the brighter side, however, once the cuts are submitted by the makers and duly verified by the CBFC, issuance of the certificate will be done forthwith.

Of course, a video cassette of the final film is also to be handed over to the Board. But this entire exercise can be done in a day's time after the film's negative is released.

Meanwhile, even as top financier Bharat Shah is being interrogated by the crime branch of police in Bombay in the CCCC case today (15th December), his lawyers are reportedly moving the court to ensure the film's release on December 22.

So whether the film will come next week or not now depends on the verdict of the court. A clear picture will emerge in a few hours from now.

The release plans were thrown out of gear on December 13 when the film's producer, Nazim Rizvi, was arrested under the M C O C Act. The following day, the police ordered Adlabs to refrain from making any prints of the film for delivery to its all-India distributors.

Meanwhile, there's absolute uncertainty in distribution and exhibition circles. Panic is writ large on the faces of distributors of CCCC and the over 300 exhibitors across the country, who had booked the film for release on December 22.