Kejriwal docu runs into CBFC trouble

MUMBAI: A documentary on the rise of Arvind Kejriwal, from an activist to Delhi chief minister, has landed in trouble with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) as makers claim they have been asked to remove references of BJP and Congress.

Director duo Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla’s “An Insignificant Man” traces the rise of Kejriwal and the birth of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

“We have shown in our film how an outsider enters politics, it is about how somebody who is protesting becomes a politician. We did not anticipate any kind of trouble for our film,” Khushboo said. “It is a political film, so any number of things can be problematic or not problematic. The job of the censor (board) chief is not to protect political parties or politicians,” she alleged.

But Nihalani refuted their claims. “We have just asked them to follow the regular procedure. I have not asked them to give anything else. We have given them a notice. We have asked them to mute some words and the specification of which have been given in the letter, which they should share with media,” Nihalani said.

The duo had applied for certification in February this year and the examining committee saw the film.

The makers were then handed over a letter, stating that the censor board chairperson has decided to pass the film to CBFC’s revising committee.

Vinay claimed that when he went to meet Nihalani and asked him the reason behind CBFC’s decision, the censor board chief told him that he was “not obliged to give me any answers and we can go to the media”.