New Delhi:
The government has denied the claims of producers of the movie Indian Summer, based on the alleged Nehru-Edwina affair, that it censored the movie.
The sources in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry have said it is unfair to blame the government since the film was cancelled due to budgetary issues.
Early this month, the film producers had sent a letter to government saying they are cancelling the production due to recessionary budgets and not anything else, the sources said.
They also said that the government only wanted physical proximity not to be shown in the movie. The producers wanted to shoot at Rashtrapati Bhawan, and the ministry told them they have to write to the President and ask, the sources added.
The censorship row:
It's an Indian summer that's left Hollywood Universal Studios in a sweat. The historical drama based on the close friendship between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten featuring Cate Blanchett and Irrfan khan in the lead roles was on Wednesday blown up into a controversy again.
It's one of the Raj's worst kept secrets. But Hollywood's version of the reported romantic association between Pandit Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten seems to have no chance of hitting the big screen.
While the film trade paper Variety puts it down to lack of budgets, Atonement director Joe Wright is quoted as saying that film of the book titled An Indian Summer based on the lead-up to Partition and Independence has been shelved due to creative differences between the film's producers and the Indian government.
"We were in between a rock and a hard place," said Joe Wright, the filmmaker.
The director also said that the authorities in Delhi demanded major script change in exchange for permissions to go ahead with the filming.
"The Indian government wanted us to make less of the love story while the studio wanted us to make more of the love story," Wright said.
It's a view that Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni endorses, citing rules governing script clearance by her ministry.
"We don't really get into the film making aspect of Indian films. But films which are coming in from outside, they don't get permission from Ministry of Home affairs for their visas etc, till the content has been looked into by I&B Ministry," said she said.
The Indian government and Working Title Films have yet to comment on the controversy but for the moment it's a sudden end to a long-awaited Indian Summer.
The sources in the Information and Broadcasting Ministry have said it is unfair to blame the government since the film was cancelled due to budgetary issues.
Early this month, the film producers had sent a letter to government saying they are cancelling the production due to recessionary budgets and not anything else, the sources said.
They also said that the government only wanted physical proximity not to be shown in the movie. The producers wanted to shoot at Rashtrapati Bhawan, and the ministry told them they have to write to the President and ask, the sources added.
The censorship row:
It's an Indian summer that's left Hollywood Universal Studios in a sweat. The historical drama based on the close friendship between Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten featuring Cate Blanchett and Irrfan khan in the lead roles was on Wednesday blown up into a controversy again.
It's one of the Raj's worst kept secrets. But Hollywood's version of the reported romantic association between Pandit Nehru and Edwina Mountbatten seems to have no chance of hitting the big screen.
While the film trade paper Variety puts it down to lack of budgets, Atonement director Joe Wright is quoted as saying that film of the book titled An Indian Summer based on the lead-up to Partition and Independence has been shelved due to creative differences between the film's producers and the Indian government.
"We were in between a rock and a hard place," said Joe Wright, the filmmaker.
The director also said that the authorities in Delhi demanded major script change in exchange for permissions to go ahead with the filming.
"The Indian government wanted us to make less of the love story while the studio wanted us to make more of the love story," Wright said.
It's a view that Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni endorses, citing rules governing script clearance by her ministry.
"We don't really get into the film making aspect of Indian films. But films which are coming in from outside, they don't get permission from Ministry of Home affairs for their visas etc, till the content has been looked into by I&B Ministry," said she said.
The Indian government and Working Title Films have yet to comment on the controversy but for the moment it's a sudden end to a long-awaited Indian Summer.
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