DT e-Paper 27 February 2017

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2017
DT
Female centric film refused by Indian
Censor Board
• Showtime Desk
Lipstick Under My Burkha is
directed by Alankrita Shrivastava,
and tells the story of the secret
lives of four women — including
a college student who wears a
burkha (veil), and a 55-year-old
who rediscovers a sex life after the
death of her husband.
It won an award at the Tokyo
International Film Festival last
year, and was also aired at the
MAMI Mumbai Film Festival in
October. But when it came to
the Indian Censor Board, the
authorities refused to certify a film
it describes as “lady-oriented,”
sparking a furious
response from the
director, in the latest
case to highlight fears
over creative freedom in
the country.
In a letter, the
Central Board of Film
Certification (CBFC) told
the makers of Lipstick
Under My Burkha that
it would not clear the
Hindi film for general
release.
Shrivastava described
the CBFC’s ruling as an
“assault on women’s
rights.”
CBFC’s Chairperson
Pahlaj Nihalani
didn’t comment on the matter,
but Prakash Jha came out
and slammed them. He told a
magazine, “As a country we must
encourage freedom of expression
but the CBFC refusing to certify
Ranbir’s drastic
transformation
films that tell uncomfortable
stories discourages filmmakers
from pushing the envelope.”
The letter was sent last month
and came to light this week, after
Bollywood actor Farhan Akhtar
tweeted about it. A copy of the
letter was seen by AFP on Friday.
Lipstick Under My Burkha (titled
as Lipstick Waale Sapne) is an
Indian Hindi film. The film is
directed by Alankrita Shrivastava
and produced by Prakash Jha. The
film stars Konkona Sen Sharma,
Ratna Pathak, Aahana Kumra,
and Plabita Borthakur in lead
roles, along with Sushant Singh,
Vikrant Massey, Shashank Arora,
Vaibbhav Tatwawdi, and Jagat
Singh Solanki. The film's trailer
was released on October 14, 2016.
The film premiered at the Tokyo
and Mumbai Film Festivals, where
it won the Spirit of Asia Prize and
the Oxfam Award for Best Film on
Gender Equality •
Performances from the fourth day of Bengal Shangskriti Uthshob 2017, Sylhet
PHOTOS: BENGAL FOUNDATION
• Showtime Desk
Ranbir Kapoor may have
pulled off Bollywood’s biggest
‘transformation’ for Rajkumar
Hirani’s biopic on Sanjay Dutt.
Latest pictures from the sets of
the film have surfaced online, and
Ranbir looks exactly like young
Sanjay Dutt.
As part of his preparation for
the role, Ranbir had to gain more
than 13 kilos, which comprises
of muscle and no fat to match up
with the muscular physique of
Sanjay Dutt. The untitled biopic
will be the first one to be made on
a Bollywood star.
Sanjay has given around 200
hours of recording as basic matter
for the biopic. Sanjay even spoke
about watching Ranbir Kapoor
transform into Sanjay Dutt in front
PHOTO: INDIATODAY
of his eyes. “It feels good to see
Ranbir and know that a biopic
is being made on me. I think it’s
been an interesting life,” he told a
magazine.
Ranbir Kapoor will be seen
portraying three phases of Sanjay
Dutt’s life in which he will be seen
in three avatars with a beefy body,
and then a lean look from the 90’s,
and the third avatar will showcase
his phase in drug rehab.
In this biopic, Paresh Rawal is
playing Sunil Dutt’s role, Sonam
Kapoor plays Sanjay’s earlier
love interest. Vicky Kaushal is
his friend from the US, Anushka
Sharma essays the role of a
journalist and Manisha Koirala
plays Nargis - Sanjay’s mother
- whose death in 1981 from
pancreatic cancer, affected him
deeply. •