The I & B ministry’s special committee on July 21 cleared the release of Udaipur Files: Kanhaiya Lal Tailor Murder with some changes. However, this still doesn’t clear the path of the film, purportedly based on a true-life case, as a Supreme Court bench of Justices Surya Kant and Joymalya Bagchi asked the petitioners to file their objections to the committee’s order. The bench posted the matter for hearing on July 24.
The release was objected to by Maulana Arshad Madani and the main accused in the murder case, Mohd. Javed, who beheaded the tailor in Udaipur for sharing a controversial post by Nupur Sharma on the Prophet’s marriage. The special committee has asked the producers to add a new disclaimer in place of the existing one, besides replacing the name ‘Nutan Sharma’ (to represent Nupur Sharma in the real-life story) and a dialogue Maine toh wohi kaha hai jo unke dharm granthon mein likha hai (I said what is written in their religious books). Other cuts recommended by the committee are:
– Remove frames in the credits, that thank various individuals.
– Revise the AI-generated scene depicting a Saudi Arabia-style turban.
– Remove following dialogues: “Baluchi kabhi wafadar nahin hota…”, “… Baluchi ki …”, “Arre, kya Baluchi, kya Afghani, kya Hindustani, kya Pakistani…”.
These changes are in addition to the 55 cuts effected by the CBFC. The new disclaimer which is included is as follows: The film is not a literal account of actual persons or occurrences. Any resemblances to real persons and events is unintentional; film does not endorse, justify or glorify violence, vigilantism, extremism or illegal acts.
