‘Videsh’ runs into rough weather over censor row

Spicezee Bureau

Mumbai, March 21: Filmmaker Deepa Mehta seems to have become the favourite child of controversies. According to the latest B-town buzz, Deepa Mehta’s new directorial venture ‘Videsh’ has run into bad weather regarding censorship issues. In a screening session, Censor Board felt that ‘Videsh’, a movie based on domestic violence, portrays too much violence on Preity and thereby asked for a few cuts to make the film less gruesome. News has it that Deepa Mehta has to show the edited version of the film before the Censor Board to get clearance for its release. A representative of Deepa Mehta wanted a U/A certificate for the movie but the Censor Board was unrelenting. ‘Videsh’ shows several violent scenes between Preity and her on screen husband actor Vansh Bhardwaj. According to the Regional Officer of the Censor Board Vinyak Azad, “We have asked them to tone down the domestic violence scenes by 50 per cent. And we had one more objection. The film has used expletives too, which will have to be either beeped or deleted. “He added that “We will review the film once again after they make the cuts which we have asked for.” Preity had bagged the best actress Silver Hugo Award at the 44th Chicago International Film Festival for her role in the dark flick. Preity was believed to be quite disturbed after shooting the violent scenes. In an interview said that “I remember asking a woman, who was a victim of domestic violence and had left her husband, what the turning point in her relationship was and she said, ‘I told my husband if you want to beat me, beat me in the bedroom, don’t beat me in front of the family.’ I could never understand that. It’s terrible. I really didn’t know what it was to be in a situation like this till I actually did the film.”