Bollywood Paradize: 10/16/08

Madhur Bhandarkar is plain amused that his Fashion has got an adults-only certificate. Especially so since the kind of scenes for, which he was challenged have been quite common in his earlier films.

For the uninitiated, when Fashion was presented to Censors for a certificate, they objected to a few scenes revolving around Priyanka-Arjan lovemaking and drug intake by Priyanka and Kangana for general viewing.

"They felt that these sequences should only be shown to the mature audience. This is why they gave Fashion an 'A' certificate.

Their reasoning is that people below 18 years should not be exposed to scenes like these, especially the ones around drug intake, " informs Madhur Bhandarkar who just wants to move on with the promotion of the film while leaving this incident behind.

"I don't have time to fight the case. In any case, it has been a day in and night out job to meet the October 29 deadline.

The last thing I want now is to get into any further hassles", says Madhur in an exasperated tone, "I did try reasoning with them if they could at the least give the film a U/A certificate but they said that they had their own guidelines to adhere to."

But lovemaking or drug intake is nothing new in Madhur Bhandarkar films! Corporate featured an intimate scene between Bipasha Basu and Kay Kay Menon; Page 3 had an extended rave party sequence while in Traffic Signal Ranvir Shorey played the role of a young unemployed man who died on the streets due to excessive use of drugs.

"Search me, " Madhur can't hide his disappointment here, "I discussed the same logic with the Censors. My point was that where were these rules or guidelines when the aforementioned films were censored?

They were not given an A certificate. Moreover, some of these films even went on to bag National Awards. Censor Board did say that there have been some changes in the years gone by but frankly, I am truly left clueless."

Apparently, Censors were willing to give the film a U/A certificate provided he deleted the scenes from the film. Didn't he feel like accepting the offer so that he could cater to a larger segment of audience?

"No, " says Madhur forthrightly, "The character graph would have gone for a complete toss had I knocked off these scenes. If I have to show someone going down the hill and loosing her way in her journey towards stardom, I have to showcase what went wrong.

I have to show the fall of a protagonist through the bad habits that she has got into and for that, it is imperative that the scenes featuring drug usage, smoking etc. be retained. It is only after a fall like that the rise to glory would have made an impact."

In fact, the Censor Board too suggested him to take the 'A' certificate while keeping the scenes intact.

"True, they believe that the film has been well made and have appreciated it quite a lot.

Even they felt that Fashion would lose its essence if the scenes are cut from the movie just in order to cater to a larger audience. Its ok, I love my film too much and the kind of conviction I have made it with, I won't want to touch any frame.

For me, it is realism that matters most and by touching my scenes just for some added percentage of commercial gain, I would have only ended up defeating the entire purpose, " signs off Madhur.