Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar on Friday said that the controversy over Anupam Kher starrer ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ is uncalled for.
The recently-released trailer of the film – which revolves around Dr. Manmohan Singh’s tenure as prime minister – has drawn a lot of flak from the Maharashtra Youth Congress that demanded a special screening of the film.
In an interview with a agency, Bhandarkar said, “These agitations are uncalled for, especially when we talk about freedom of expression. It’s just the trailer that has been released and people are already agitated about it.”
“The same thing happened with my film ‘Indu Sarkar’ last year, which was based on emergency. This is not fair if we talk about democracy. There should be freedom of expression,” he added.
The political drama, which will release on January 11, is based on facts as chronicled in a book by Sanjaya Baru, Manmohan Singh’s media advisor between 2004 and 2008.
“If we talk about this movie, it is based on a book which was in the public domain from the last two-three years. Why didn’t anybody protest all this while?” questioned the ‘Fashion’ director.
The 50-year-old further said that only responsible organisations, such as the censor board, should take call on what is right. “And if someone still has an issue, they can any day go to the court,” he added.
Earlier in the day, while speaking with the media, lead actor of the film Anupam Kher said that much importance should not be given to these protests. “An actor’s job is to act, the filmmaker’s job is to make a film and take it to the people and it’s the job of these organisations to protest. So, we should not give so much of importance to them,” Kher said.
