In the long battle that filmmakers having been fighting to keep the Censor Board tampering with their movies, a resounding victory has just been scored and all thanks is to Anurag Kashyap. 
For years he has been at the receiving end of cuts from censors and this time, when they wanted Punjab dropped from the title of the movie Udta Punjab, he almost singlehandedly launched a media campaign and then went to court. And what a stinging verdict the court has given, castigating the Pahlaj Nihalani-led Central Board of Film Certification of overreaching their brief and saying that their job was just to certify and not censor movies. 
Out of all the 13 cuts that the Board had been demanding from Udta Punjab, the court just upheld one, which means the movie is going to be released almost virtually untouched. But Nihalani did not really show grace in defeat. 
When the certificate clearing the movie was given, he didn’t put the Board’s name on it and instead it mentioned that the High Court judges were the ones who had done it. But the controversies weren’t done yet. 
Even before the movie was released, torrents of Udta Punjab sprang up on the Internet offering people a pirated print to view. The print also mentioned that it was a copy cleared for the censors. Given how much emotions had been stretched, many were certain that someone from the Board had leaked the print out of spite just to get back at Kashyap. He himself seemed to insinuate it. 
But Kashyap also put up a nuanced post on Facebook on piracy in which he said, ‘I have never downloaded a film on torrent, i don’t know how to. yes occasionally i have seen downloaded films borrowed from friends and found a way to pay for them later, by buying them on DVD or blurray, and when i say this i also say that no one can stop your right to download a film. This time its a different fight, its a fight against censorship and if you are that audience that always downloads a film, then i won’t ask you to not do that , please do, but wait till saturday which is the day you would normally download a film…’ 
Even Aamir Khan made a public statement that if, as was alleged, it was the doing of someone from the CBFC then it was a disgrace. Nihalani, of course, denied any hand in it.


Money matters


Is Akshay Kumar a bigger star than Rajinikanth? Almost certainly not, considering how the latter is almost a king to his millions of followers in Tamil Nadu and also a cult figure in the rest of the country. 
So what explains a strange rumour that for Robot 2, the sequel to the superhit Robot, Akshay had charged more than Rajinikanth. A news item on this attributed it to the film’s producers really keen to rope in a big Bollywood name to play the villain opposite Rajnikanth but that still doesn’t add up the numbers. Rajinikanth is always the biggest draw of any movie he is in. 
Chances are Akshay was paid his entire fee upfront. Rajnikanth, on the other hand, would probably be charging a portion of the movie’s profits given that if he started charging a flat rate, it would be too astronomical for any filmmaker to afford. So Akshay is probably getting paid more at the moment but after the movie’s collections it might be a different story.


Gift that was not


Bipasha Basu who recently got married found herself at the centre of a rather strange bit of gossip. A newspaper ran a story saying that she had been given a Rs10 crore house as a wedding gift by Salman Khan. 
That is a huge amount and not even someone as rich as Salman would fritter it away on a gift. And he has been earlier too at the receiving end of similar news. While his movie Kick was being made, there was a rumor that he had gifted a flat in a posh locality to co-star Jacqueline Fernandez. That one turned out to be a canard and, as it so happens, so is this news. 
Bipasha got onto twitter to refute it and said, ‘This is the biggest hogwash that I have ever read. Why would I take a gift like this ever from anyone?!??’ Salman has not reacted but wouldn’t have had anything different to say!’


Yet another issue


Another person affected by the Censor Board was Nawazuddin Siddiqui, whose movie Haraamkhor was also found to be held up by them. After the Udta Punjab issue gained traction, Haraamkhor’s producer also came out in the media saying that the Board was refusing to give a certificate because they didn’t like the theme of the movie — a relationship between a tuition teacher and his 14-year-old student. 
It is small budget movie but because it starred Nawazuddin the news got traction and if the Board has a rethink on it will be a reaffirmation of how much weight Nawazuddin’s name now carries in the film industry. 
He was recently seen sharing almost equal screen time with Amitabh Bachchan in the thriller Te3n. Also Raman Raghav 2.0 is now going to be released and he plays the central character in it. With Anurag Kashyap directing it, the movie is expected to make waves. And Nawazuddin is said to have signed on one more thriller in which he plays the main lead.  
One movie of his, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz, was however in the news for a rather puzzling controversy. Chitrangada Singh was acting opposite Nawazuddin in it. The movie had been delayed for more than a year after some shots being filmed. They then resumed shooting recently and just as suddenly Chitrangada walked out of the movie following a row with the director. 
Apparently they were shooting an intimate scene of hers with Nawazuddin, when the director became insistent on adding some more sensualism and kissing. She had an argument with him over it and decided to quit. 


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