Mumbai:
Australian pace bowler-turned-actor Brett Lee's love scene with Tannishtha Chatterjee in his debut, 'UnIndian', has got the red signal from the Censor Board. The disputed film certification board of India has objected to the intensity of the scene and use of simultaneous mantra chanting.
The board’s examining committee has asked to tone down the one-minute-eight-seconds scene. If the film's makers agree to the recommended alteration, it becomes a 26-seconds scene.
The committee suggested, "Remove the sideways visual and end climatic shot. The sex scene not to be synchronised with the mantra chanting." The EC has asked the film's makers to oblige the recommendation if they expect a U/A.
'Appalled' by the EC's suggestion, director Anupam Sharma says, "The love scene runs simultaneously with a sermon scene where followers chant 'Om Shreem Hreem' which are spiritual chants and not religious. I'm a practising Hindu myself so there is no way I would offend anyone's sentiments."
Though he doesn't agree with the cuts, he says, "I cannot lose out on my audience at the cost of retaining my interest as a filmmaker... I cannot hold my distributors and producer at ransom. I wonder how no lesson has been learnt, even after the Bombay High Court making it clear that the CBFC does not have the power to 'censor' films. Of all films, this one is the last film that needs to run into controversy."
Meanwhile Lee also expressed shock on the objection. “It’s been very tastefully done. It’s about two human beings becoming one which happens in everyday life and which happens in this film,” he told media.
