Certification board believes movie could spark violent protests
By Nirmala George
NEW DELHI (AP) --India has blocked the release of a film on the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, saying it glorifies her killers and could trigger violent protests, officials said Friday.
India's film certification board said the film glorified the Sikh bodyguards who killed Gandhi to avenge her suppression of an insurgency that culminated in an army assault on the Golden Temple, Sikhism's holiest shrine.
"Kaum De Heere," or "Diamonds of the Community," was scheduled to be released in theaters across northern India on Friday.
Certification board chief Leela Samson said panel members saw the film and decided it could not be released as it posed a threat to public order.
India's Home Ministry had expressed concern about a clearance earlier given to the film and had asked the panel to review it, Samson said.
The ministry had received intelligence reports that the film could trigger feelings of enmity between India's Hindu and Sikh communities, she said.
"We saw the film and decided it could not be released as it was, due to fears that it would lead to disruption of public order," she said.
"The film is double trouble. It glorifies Indira Gandhi's assassins who took the law into their own hands and it glorifies the hanging of the two men," Samson said.
The film is based on the lives of three Sikh men, including two bodyguards who shot and killed Gandhi against the backdrop of an insurgency that gripped the northern state of Punjab through the late 1970s and early 1980s when Sikh militants demanded a separate Sikh nation.
Gandhi ordered the June 1984 army operation to flush out hundreds of heavily armed Sikh separatists barricaded inside the Golden Temple. The attack outraged Sikhs and led to a catastrophic breakdown in communal relations.
Later that year, Gandhi was assassinated and the country was swept by a wave of anti-Sikh rioting which resulted in the deaths of more than 2,000 Sikhs.
Officials said the recent arrest of India's chief film censor on accusations that he solicited bribes to speed the clearance of films drew attention to the clearance given to "Kaum De Heere."
Certification board CEO Rakesh Kumar was arrested Tuesday after a sting operation in which two of his associates sought 70,000 rupees, or about $1,050, on Kumar's behalf to speed up the censor's clearance for a film.
During questioning, Kumar revealed that he had accepted a bribe of 100,000 rupees ($1,666) from the makers of "Kaum De Heere" to approve its censor certification.
The film's producer Pardeep Bansal and its director Ravinder Ravi have denied the charges.
Meanwhile, leaders of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Congress Party have called for the banning of the film, saying it would offend people's religious and community feelings.
Bansal said the film was based on historic events and that he would soon seek a review of the film board's decision.
"It is a balanced film. Some people are unnecessarily trying to create a controversy," Bansal told reporters.
Samson said the film had not been banned and could be reviewed after suitable changes to the script and cuts were made.
"The film's producers can always file an appeal to the film certification appellate tribunal and seek redress," she said.
First-Time Feature Directors Make Major Splash At AFI Fest, Generate Oscar Buzz
Two first-time feature directors who are generating Oscar buzz this awards season were front and center this past weekend at AFI Fest in Hollywood. Rachel Morrison, who made history as the first woman nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar---on the strength of Mudbound in 2018--brought her feature directorial debut, The Fire Inside (Amazon MGM Studios), to the festival on Sunday (10/27), and shared insights into the film during a conversation session immediately following the screening. This came a day after William Goldenberg, an Oscar-winning editor for Argo in 2013, had his initial foray into feature directing, Unstoppable (Amazon MGM Studios), showcased at the AFI proceedings. He too spoke after the screening during a panel discussion. The Fire Inside--which made its world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival--tells the story of Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (portrayed by Ryan Destiny), a Black boxer from Flint, Mich., who trained to become the first woman in U.S. history to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the sport. She achieved this feat--with the help of coach Jason Crutchfield (Brian Tyree Henry)--only to find that her victory at the Summer Games came with relatively little fanfare and no endorsement deals. So much for the hope that the historic accomplishment would be a ticket out of socioeconomic purgatory for Shields and her family. It seemed like yet another setback in a cycle of adversity throughout Shields’ life but she persevered, going on to win her second Gold Medal at the next Olympics and becoming a champion for gender equality and equitable pay for women in sports. Shields has served as a source of inspiration for woman athletes worldwide--as well as to the community of... Read More