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Kapur threatens to withdraw Elizabeth from India

Spewing venom on the Central Board for Film Certification, commonly known as the censor board, for insisting on three small cuts in his film Elizabeth, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur today threatened to withdraw the film altogether, including the shows meant for the President and the prime minister.

"If the censor board okays it, I will dub the film in Hindi for the benefit of Indian viewers and film-buffs," Kapur told a crowded press conference in Bombay.

"Elizabeth has been released worldwide without any cuts and in the United States and Europe there have been bulk bookings for the film by schools, as an example of the representation of the history of that period," Kapur said.

The Indian censors, however, continue to believe the Indian mind to be far less mature than the rest of the world, he said.

Kapur said he had not spoken to censor board chairperson Asha Parekh and intends to approach the appellate tribunal against the three cuts recommended in scenes involving violence, bad language and nudity.

Kapur said Parekh's statement that he is making a fuss for the sake of publicity is untrue. Elizabeth was nominated for seven Oscars this year and there is no question of angling for cheap publicity, he said.

The film was due to premiere in Delhi on August 3 in the presence of President K R Narayanan and Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, followed by its opening on August 6 in Bombay. But, on the censor board's refusal to pass the film without cuts, the distributors decided to withdraw the two shows as well in keeping with Kapur's wishes.

Kapur said he doesn't want to "politicise the issue", and has sent personal apologies to the President and the prime minister.

But he claimed that the cuts suggested by the censors would alter the perception of the complex narrative. "I would rather the film is seen by the Indian people as I had intended it to be seen anywhere else, or not at all," he said.

Kapur expressed surprise that a film that had won accolades all over the world, including nominations for seven Oscars, 12 BAFTAs, and three Golden Globes, and was the inaugural film at the International Film Festival of India at Hyderabad earlier this year, should be treated thus.

Kapur was confident he would be accorded the same treatment as Steven Spielberg, whose Saving Private Ryan was released in India without a single cut after the director refused to allow the film to be released anywhere with cuts.

"I ask for the same. After all, both films were nominated for the Best Picture. Or do we still believe in our hearts that somehow anything the West does must be better?" said Kapur.

UNI

EARLIER REPORTS:
Shekhar Kapur blasts Asha Parekh
'Why doesn't the Censor Board realise its view could be wrong, that maybe the world knows better?'

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