No clearance for ‘Once upon a time in Amritsar’

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, April 27

The much awaited Punjabi film, “Once upon a time in Amritsar”, has failed to get clearance from the Censor Board of Film Certification (CBFC), a statutory body under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Consequently, the release of the film slated for April 29 has been put on hold.

The film had kicked a controversy after its promotional trailer that went viral on the social media showed actors pointing guns at each other with Golden Temple in the background.

Even as the film makers said the objectionable scenes had been deleted from the film after SGPC’s intervention, the film has been put under review by the CBFC. The CBFC has constituted a seven-member committee, headed by its chairperson Pehlaj Nehlani.

The trailer had sparked anger among the Sikh fraternity. Ironically, even as the film makers claimed to have removed these scenes, yet the official trailers available on various portals on the websites belied these claims.

The film makers clarified that the scenes under reference in the film were never shot through lens, but were incorporated through a digital ‘chroma’ technique later.

Babli Singh, who had purchased the overseas and digital rights of the film, confirmed that the date of release of the film had been postponed as a green signal from the CBFC’s was awaited.

Film director Harjit Singh Ricky said the film had been delayed by a couple of weeks due to ‘technical’ reasons, but the so-called objectionable scenes from the film had been removed.